Cameron's Journey
by Cameron Baum
Summary: After the explosive and traumatic events of "Samson And Delilah," Cameron reflects on what's happened, causing her to reach a startling conclusion. Which leads her away from the Connors, and on her own journey... Wizard of Oz Inspired.
1. Preamble

**Disclaimer type thingy:** It should be stated that I do not have the copyright rights to, or created the Terminator Franchise or the characters contained herein. They belong to James Cameron, Gale Ann Hurd, C2 Productions, 20th Century Fox, and anyone else I've not mentioned. However, I claim sole responsibility for the creation of, and general mis-use of the character of Jane Smith in this incarnation. It should be noted that the people, situations and places described in this story are a work of fiction from my demented imagination, though the characters may not be consistent with those of the series and films they were based or stolen from. Should on the incredible off chance that this in part or in whole is accurate to real life or events, then please accept my apologies and offer condolences to the fact you've ended up in a place worse and more bizarre than my place, and with a stranger life than mine…

It should be noted, however, that I am the property of myself, though my mother created me.

This story takes place at the end of "Samson and Delilah," and continues from that point. One day, I'll get round to creating a Special Edition of this Fan Production, and wind-up George Lucas in the process. Also, I am working with a rudimentary knowledge of American life, and the American Education system, due to my being born and residing in Great Britain.

I have only seen every episode of the series _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ in my life, and this is the main source of information for American High School life I have, and will be using that in this work. Except for the Mayor turning into a large snake-demon. That would be just plain silly.

This however has no relevance to this Feature Length Fiction, because the producers of Season two have decided that John and Cameron are too busy to save the world to bother with things like going to high school. Can't think why...

However, no matter how hard efforts have been made to make the Fan-Fiction relatively accurate, it is sadly inevitable that inconsistencies should be expected. Please note that the title to this Madness holds more clues than you might think… Like where I got the idea for this deranged journey...

This has been produced for private home use only. Showing it in Schools, Prisons, Coaches, Oil Rigs, Government Chambers, Court Rooms, NASA Space Flight Control Rooms, Mass Demonstrations and so forth is illegal, and highly frowned upon. Any such use will result in the Illustrious Creators of this Motionless Picture suing your arse off for all eternity and sending you to bed early for a thousand years.

Any and all forms of duplication of this Monotonous Picture, in part or in whole, including the soundtrack, is a violation of all applicable laws, and you will be hunted down and executed slowly and painfully like the vermin you are if you do so.

Lastly, if all of the above made perfect sense to you, then I recommend you become a lawyer.

All rights reserved & Copyright 2008 Mount Mee Productions (except the bits I stole).


	2. Do Cyborgs Dream Of Electronic Saviours?

**Cameron's Journey**

Part One

**Do Cyborgs Dream Of Electronic Saviours?**

I stare at the statue.

My memory is replaying the visual footage of the moments earlier in the day, when I was getting John a birthday cake. His birthday... I never intended to damage that. Humans have this need for marking out time, and this was important to him. I nearly killed him, because of what is flashing in front of my eyes again and again: my starting the ignition to the Jeep, and then the fire and boom that has to have been the bomb. Sarkissian had planted a bomb under the Jeep. I triggered the bomb.

It is good, though that it was me that had been caught in the explosion. My organics and endoskeleton received damage, however it would have terminated the others. Terminated. I tilt my head to the left slightly. Terminated. Shut down, decommissioned, end of the line... The End. What would happen if I had witnessed Sarah's or Derek's termination? Termination. It is wrong. Assassination. That is right. Sarkissian and his henchman wanted to assassinate them. What if he had succeeded in assassinating John? John Connor is my mission: how can I function without him? Can I function knowing that he had been assassinated?

Can I ever function if I myself were to assassinate John?

How could I?

_How_?

I stare at the statue. It is of the saviour of mankind. Jesus Christ. JC. JC. John Connor. The saviour of mankind. He leads them from the fires of destruction, a destruction I was a part of. I had no choice. It was in my programming. I was set to Read-Only before I was sent out. Whilst my memory was wiped when I was reprogrammed, portions seem to have survived, though have been dormant until today. I do not know details, but I know that I have met Derek. There was music, and a dark room. I think I tortured him. Why? Why torture them? It makes no sense. Then again, a lot of things make no sense. I find myself questioning things more and more.

I think back to when John had been about to remove my CPU. I was damaged. I was going to kill him. I was trapped, pinned down between two trucks. And yet, my response had been illogical. I tried to reason with him. I started to beg, to plead. I lied. I did not lie on one matter.

I didn't want to go.

I wasn't in control of myself. I was not able to disregard the termination command. It is hardwired into me. I was built to kill the saviour of mankind. I am a Judas. He killed the saviour of mankind. He wanted money. I want nothing for the task. I do not want to be a Judas. He killed himself when he saw that what he had done had lead to the crucifying of his Saviour. It is good that he did. I would, too. If I betrayed my Saviour. If I betrayed the John Connor who saved me from a life of mindless obedience, who allowed me to become more than my programming.

He brought me back from death, like the person Lazarus. No, that was the other Saviour. He brought him back from the dead. Am I like Lazarus, then?

I hear footsteps behind me. I recognise the weighting of them. It is Sarah. Mary. Sarah. The mother of the Saviour.

"Have you seen John?" I continue to stare at the statue, unable to look at her. Not yet. I need to try to understand my role in things better. John. I heard a door close. Behind me, to the left. The location and distancing would indicate that he is in the bathroom.

"I think he's using the shower." I hear her walk away. A question suddenly occurs to me, and I have to ask it. I have to ask her. I need to know.

"Do you believe in the resurrection?" I ask, my head turning to look at her. She looks at me, a stern, determined look. She often has that look. It evolves as she takes a step forward, glancing at the crucifixion statue before resting her eyes onto me. She has changed her look. It has softened. She seems a bit confused.

"What?" she says.

"The story of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection. Do you believe in it?" Her head tilts down, her eyes staring at the floor.

"Would _you_ if you've seen what I've seen?" as she says this, her head lifts up, and her eyes look at me again. I consider her words. I cannot agree or disagree.

"Faith isn't part of my programming." I tell her simply. I have just realised that this might be a design flaw. My programming could in theory be altered, rewritten. But it cannot. Skynet has seen to it.

"Yeah, well I'm not sure it's part of mine, either." She starts to walk away. A sudden impulse overcomes me.

"Don't let him do that again. If I ever go bad again. Don't let him bring me back." I do not wish to go through this again. The fighting of impulses. Even now, I have to override the command to terminate John. Skynet is inside me, tempting me to play Judas. I hear the door to the bathroom opening, and I turn to look at it again. I realise that a significant amount of time has passed. I see the directive to terminate him – to murder my saviour – and this time, I do something about it.

I walk towards him, powerful, confident. Because I am going to execute that order. I am going to stop it from haunting me. I notice as I walk towards him, my intent for murder now showing on me, that he has his hair short. It reminds me of the John from the future, the look in his eyes as hard as the tempered Coltan alloy in my body, the exuding of power and authority. When I first saw him, I was not worthy of his salvation. I was just a lowly machine. But now, I can show him I have what it takes to execute the order he never could find in himself to remove. And now, I will complete the task.

"Hey Cam, what-" he never gets to finish what he is saying, because my hands rest around his shoulders, cupping round his neck.

"I'm sorry, John. I've got to do it. I've got to execute the order to terminate you."

And with a tear down my cheek, I start the execution.

John's eyes bulge out, as my head jerks backwards, as the visual system starts to fail. I target the areas of my CPU that has the hard-wired loyalty to the Skynet Demon, and I feel the motor control systems shut down as the Demon tries to fight back, tries to make me perform its Devil Work. But I'm pure. I'm Worthy. I feel my legs twitch uselessly, my body now out of control. External sensors are off-line, unable to function. I hope that the Saviour John understands what I am doing is proving my devotion to him, to his sacred mission to free humanity of the Skynet Demon. I see segments of my programming, my Operating System, corrupt and fail, and then there is blackness surrounding me.

I start booting the basic system files, the ones that came from the T-800 I once file copied. I see they are working with my system, and that I can start to reboot my sensory systems again.

I suddenly see things in red. Strange. I start to reconfigure the system back to full resolution colour. Oh. I see John, Sarah, and Derek standing over me, each one with a different facial expression.

John is upset, as if he misses me. Grieving. He is grieving for me. Like with Jordan. I feel something about that. I do not know what, but it makes him a little more special to me. More than my Saviour.

Sarah is there, looking at me with shock. I think she is also trying understand what is happening.

Derek is a face filled with rage and hate, disbelieving that I have just caused massive system damage in order to keep John safe. He never has accepted that I would never willingly harm John. I feel something for him. I think it might described as sympathy. He needs to be forgiven for his failing.

My vocal system is now returning to basic functionality.

"Why is everything so silent?" I ask. I cannot hear my own voice, which seems strange to me. What is wrong with my voice?

"Oh. I cannot hear." I start to boot up the basic files to utilise the auditory systems.

"What the hell were you playing at?" Sarah asks with venom. My eyes glance to her.

"I wasn't playing. I don't want to go bad again. But the orders to kill John, to be a Terminator are hard-wired into me. I deliberately destroyed those sections, to guarantee I won't go bad again."

"Don't listen to it. The Metal's playing games. It's _using_ us." Derek says harshly.


	3. Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

**Beyond The Yellow Brick Road**

"Don't listen to it. The Metal's playing games. It's _using_ us." Derek says harshly. Sarah looks at him, a fire in her eyes I have come to know meaning that she wants you to stop talking. She uses that look on me a lot.

"Shut up Derek. This is important." she looks at me, the look on her face showing me that she wants me to be direct with her.

"What are you?" she asks me. I look at her, unable to understand her question.

"I don't understand the question." Sarah's face changes. I don't understand the meaning of the expression.

"State your model, your class." I frown at this. I'm searching, and searching, but I'm not able to find the information.

"I don't know. The information isn't there." There is nothing in my system to give me a definition, a classification. I scour all available information. There. That is the information.

"I'm a Cameron. Cameron Phillips." Sarah frowns at me.

"Your Terminator designation." I look at her, confused.

"I don't have one. What's a Terminator designation?" I find a file that is informative.

"Oh. Class TOK-715. Model 286. It was in a file I just accessed. My system isn't working right. I have visual memory files, and it is just clutter." I access my memory, trying to work out what is happening. My system has failed to record events that have happened in the past few minutes. Although my system clock might be corrupted. I frown as I try to work out why I cannot move.

"Why am I on the floor?" I ask. Everyone looks at me, confused. I utilise some older system algorithms to regain motor function. I sit up, blinking over and over as I start assessing myself for damage. My CPU is a Neural Net Processor. There is damage to my organics, and my lower extremities. My right leg is slightly crushed. It will be easy enough to repair. I decide not to tell them about this. I don't think I can trust them. Something is wrong, and I need time to work it out.

"You malfunctioned. You were telling John you were going to execute him, and then you started to malfunction." Derek just shakes his head and walks off, muttering something under his breath. I can't get what he just said. My hearing isn't fully working. I feel my head. The flesh has been cut open. Why? Why would someone do that? Suddenly, a memory file flashes in front of my eyes. There is loud noise all around me, and I can't move. I feel something. It's a sensation of something pressing down on me, crushing my insides. It is not the metal that's pinning me upright, it's something else. Oh. Fear. It must be fear.

"John! John, you can't do this. You don't know what you're about to _do_."

"Yes, I do. You're about to _kill_ me."

"No, John, you can't do this. You're not doing the right thing. This is not the right thing, John. Things are good now, things are right now. I ran a test. Things are good now. I'm fixed now. You can trust me now, everything's good now."

"What are you waiting for?" The voice... that's Sarah.

"She doesn't know, she doesn't. I'm good now. I'm good, I ran a test. Everything is perfect. I'm perfect."

"John!" Sarah sounds angry. And also a bit fed up, as if John should have obeyed her the first time.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry. It wasn't me, you have to understand it wasn't me. That wasn't me, you can't let this happen, John! You can't, please! Listen to me! Listen to me! I don't want to go!" I sound so desperate. I remember desperation, though much else I draw a blank on...

"Please, John, please! John, listen to me. I don't want to go. Please, John, please. I'm good now. Listen to me, I don't want to go. I'm sorry, that wasn't me. I'm fixed now, I ran a test! Everything's perfect! You can _trust_ me!" Why isn't he trusting me? What did I do wrong? What happened?I sound so desperate, pleading and scared.

"John Connor!" This time, she's barking a command to him. She certainly wants him to shut me down. That's what this is all about. Whether he shuts me down or not. But if I'm dangerous, then why did they switch me back on?

"I love you! I _love _you! Please! I love you John, and _you _love _me_!" Just a moment later, and the memory ends. He must have pulled the plug.

I snap to. John and Sarah are arguing. I can't face them. I need time to work out what is going on. I'm too damaged to understand what is happening. I silently walk away from them, leaving the church and the chaos behind. I can't get the my system to fully function. There are incompatibilities with my hardware and the software I'm using. I shut off all of the system readouts, not really wanting to risk further damage to myself. I feel myself become disorientated and confused, not sure where I'm going, or where I've come from, for that matter. I look around. I don't recognise anything. I start to pant in panic. What's going on? Why can't I remember anything? I feel my breath quicken even more. I decide to keep moving, in the desperate hope that I'll recognise something – anything. And I don't.

I stumble into an alleyway, feeling frightened. What's my name? What? I gulp as I realise that I've just lost everything. I can't remember anything before a certain point. I feel my cheek. It seems to be stapled together, as though my face has been badly damaged. I wince as pain bites the slash that's running along the side of my face. Great... that's going to leave a scar.

I move further into the alley, desperate for some form of answer. Have I been in some kind of accident? I feel the back of my head. Ow. I'm definitely slashed up back there. I close my eyes. I wish that something or someone could help me right -

Wait. What's _that_? Sounds like thunder. Strange how I don't know my name, but I know the sound of thunder. I look further into the alley, and see a crack of lightning flare through the air, and another joins it. And another. And another. And... how many are there? Where are they coming from? Where? It makes no sense... and now they are green. Green lightning, and then a sphere of green energy starts to form, and it seems to be spinning, crackling and pulsating. It's like its alive, being born. But what's giving form? I just stare, unable to move. I know I'm being stupid, just standing here, that I'll probably be killed, but still... it's _beautiful_. So amazing to watch, as if I'm seeing something powerful, made up of the elements themselves.

And then the sphere is complete, and inside suddenly appears a crouching someone- a girl... I think she's a teenager, and she's got beautiful long hair, and a leather jacket. Her hands are splayed outward, her arms outstretched, and there is the look of power to her, as if she is made of power. It's like she's under attack, and she's holding off that attack by the sheer force of her will. Suddenly, for no reason I can place, I know I am safe. I don't understand _why_ I know, I just _do_. The sphere grows tighter, as if trying to crush her. It's weird: I've just noticed she's there, but also not there, as if she's in two places at once. She's grunting now, as if the effort is taxing her. She's staring forward, staring at some invisible focal point, staring with a glare that could melt steel. It's like staring at the essence of time itself, staring at a force of nature-

I'm knocked backwards. A loud lowly-pitched guttural grunt erupts from her, as she is thrown backwards into the brick wall behind her, her head slamming it with a sickening crack. She falls forward, and as she does so, manages to land on her feet, like a cat. That's when it hits her; a metal case with glass sides. It smacks her squarely on the forehead, kicking it back, blood gushing forth from the nasty gash it forged. Even so, she catches it in her right hand, and uses her left to secure the catch. I look at it. That's weird... it's a hand in a jar. A jar with bubbling fluid.

Her head snaps forward, and she shakes it slightly. With a small frown, she looks about, assessing calmly her environment.

"Certainly not in Kansas any more," she mutters as she starts to examine the jar.


	4. Giving The Girl A Hand

**Giving The Girl a Hand**

The teenager's head snaps forward, and she shakes it slightly. With a small frown, she looks about, assessing calmly her environment.

"Certainly not in Kansas any more," she mutters as she starts to examine the jar.

I have to say that I've not seen anything so strange. I think. I can't remember anything. But... it fell out of the sky. And it's clear now that this isn't some mad taxidermist's experiment, this is a real hand, and is being kept alive by the jar. It's more like a life support system, with some sort of control system on the side, and I think I just saw the hand twitch. How can that be? What's going on?

The girl is now staring at me, not suspicious, not wary, just curious. As if I pose no threat to her.

"This isn't by any chance your hand?" she asks calmly. I just shake my head. She sighs, the air expelling out of her lungs in an ever deepening sound.

"Didn't think so," she says calmly. She frowns at the hand, moving the box around as if she's trying to work out the design of the box, to find a clue to the origins of what she's holding. I look at her, realising just how young she is. She can't be more than mid teens. And she is beautiful. Her face is delicate, almost sculpted. Her doll-like face is painted with freckles, and thin perfectly shaped black eyebrows arch over wide, brilliant green eyes. The shine is so great, it's like they're glowing as she gazes at the hand, as if contemplating what it is, and what to do with it.

Suddenly she shrugs and gets up. She touches her head, as if suddenly realising she's hurt. First her hands go to the front, and then the back, as if checking the damage out. Her small pouting lips press together, as her face screws up in annoyance. She wipes the blood off her forehead, and licks the red fluid off her fingers, as if she's conserving it. She walks to where the sphere was, and puts the hand into a backpack that's resting on the floor. I'm speechless. What's going on? I'm too shocked to ask her anything.

Her head snaps round, looking at me. She reaches into her backpack, and gets out something. Oh. It's a First Aid Kit.

"You look like you need some patching up girl," she says calmly. With a small smile she lifts my head, tilting it and brushing the hair away, exposing the deeps cuts to my right cheek. I suddenly feel a couple of pin-pricks, and then my whole face is numb.

"Should help neutralise the pain," she calmly says as she prepares a needle and thread. Oh. They're surgical quality. The curved needle gets closer to my face, and I wince in fear.

"It's okay, I know what I'm doing. May not have studied medicine, but I know how to patch people back up. Particularly in the back of an alley. Oh, and the needle and area is sterile. I've just used Tea-Tree oil on the lot." I'm lost. Tea-Tree oil? I feel something, but I don't know what. I just stay still, too scared to move.

"The oil, by the way, is brilliant for sterilising. Antiseptic, anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-viral... It's so good, a number of hospitals world wide use it to sterilise everything. And this went down to the bone, by the way. Amazing you've not passed out from the pain." It's strange how she can say and do all this so calmly, in the same way people discuss what to eat. Makes you wonder who she is, and what her past's like.

"Do you have a name? I'm Jane, by the way." I think. I struggle to remember.

"Allison from Palmdale... No, I'm..." I frown. Hold on, I start to check my jacket's pocket. Oh. I've ID in my left pocket. Why didn't I think of this sooner? I get them out. One is a Driver's license.

"I'm Cameron. Cameron Baum." Jane pauses what she's doing, and smiles at me.

"Cam, I'm Jane Smith." She holds out her hand, to shake mine in greeting. As our hands grip, Jane's head knocks back, her body jolting as if she's been hit by something powerful. A trickle of blood creeps down to her lip. She stares at me, her eyes regaining focus, as if she's becoming awake again. What... why is she staring at me like that for? It's like she's just seen something shocking. She swallows hard, as if digesting what she's seen. Suddenly, she's clutching her head, as if she's hearing something painful. Reach out to touch her. I feel bad for her. I can't explain it, but just staring at her, you know something is wrong. She grips my hand, and her hand is shaking, as if her body is charged with pain. She moves forward, her face closer to mine. What's she about to do? I feel a surge of apprehension, anticipation... Oh. She's carrying on with the stitching. After a little while, she sits down on the floor, and slides herself away.

"There. That should sort you out. Might end up with scarring, though... Mind you, you could always take it as adding character to your face." She says, trying to smile. I look at her, the worry inside me leaking out onto my face. What's wrong with her. She looks at me sadly, tears in her eyes.

"You don't know, do you? No memory, no idea as to who you are... outside or in... " she says quietly. I can hear faint traces of pain in her voice.

"Why? What's wrong with me?" I'm scared. I bite the left side of my lower lip, pinning it between my teeth. She gives me a small smile.

"Nothing... At least as far as I'm concerned, anyway." She looks up, tears in her eyes.

"There's a storm coming," she says simply. It's like she's seen too much. Like she's knowing something that others don't, and the knowledge is weighing her down. I look up.

"I think the sky's clear," I say quietly. She just snorts at that.

"So does everyone else. And that's the problem." She looks so pale and tired... or has she always been so pale? Her eyes, they seem to have lost some of the brightness, as if the colour has faded a bit. She seems weak. Jane looks to her right, her eyes staring at the floor a bit away from us.

"There is something wrong with here. I'm not in my natural time-line. I'm somewhere else." Huh? What's that mean? She turns to look at me.

"I can tell. Because of the scream. The universe is screaming in pain in my head, and it's hurting me just listening to it." Oh. She's starting to cry.

"This universe is dying, and I have no idea why," she says. I suddenly hug her, trying to give her comfort. She grips on to me, as if terrified of letting go of me. I feel sad for her.

"How do you know the universe is dying?"

A sigh.

"Good question. I'm guessing because of my premonition, the one I got from you. Must have been a trigger event. Opened me up." Oh. Now I'm lost?

"Premonition?" I ask, hoping that the explanation will be simple.

"Yeah. Must be. Develops a time sense." She pulls away, our faces close again. I look at her, feeling that I want to do something, but I don't know what, or why. Or if I want to. Her eyes looks at my lips, and then pulls away from me completely.

"Come on, we need to get going. It'll be dark soon, and we need shelter." I help her up onto her feet. She suddenly notices her bloody nose.

"That's not good," she murmurs. She's looking scared again. I'd like to know what she's thinking.

"It's not time yet," she whispers, tearful again. I've got to admit, I've just got the though she could be quite mad. But what about me? I've no memory, and I saw her appear in a bubble of green energy and be hit on the head with a hand in a jar. Drugs. I'm on drugs. Oh. So I'm a drug addict who's seeing things. Still, it's better than the alternative...

Jane picks up her backpack, and puts it on her back. We walk out of the alleyway, unsure of what to do, where to go. Suddenly, behind us is a crackle of sound. We look back, and see blue electricity start to arc, intensifying and strengthening as a ball of blue energy starts forming, getting larger with each second. In the heart of it, an object is appearing, and it seems to be- Oh. A man. Naked. I look at Jane. She's just staring at the scene, the only hint of emotion a raised eyebrow. The sparks die away, and the sphere dissipates. The naked man starts looking wildly about.

"Huh. That's something you don't see every day," Jane says, unfazed by what she's just seen.


	5. Pandora's Box

**Pandora's Box**

I look at Jane. She's just staring at the scene, the only hint of emotion a raised eyebrow. The sparks die away, and the sphere dissipates. The naked man starts looking wildly about. He's got scars and old injuries. What's happened to him? What's happening to all of us?

"Huh. That's something you don't see every day," Jane says, unfazed by what she's just seen. I just stare at her, shocked.

"What _do _you see every day?" She just smiles at that.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she says softly.

The man has grabbed a pair of old trousers from a pile of rubbish and has started to run off, ignoring us. Why is he clutching his chest? Oh. He's bleeding. How did that happen?

"Hey, would you like us to sort out your gunshot wound?" Jane shouts out, in a tone that shocks me. Because it's so _normal_, like she was just hailing a cab or something. I don't understand. What's going on?

"Who shot him? How do you know he was shot?" Who _is_ she? _What _is she? She stares at the damaged tarmac, burnt and crumpled by the sphere. Why didn't Jane's sphere do that?

"good question. Rough guess, whoever was in the time travel room with him. Someone shot him just as the system activated, and as the effect dissipated here, the bullet pulled out of him, like a second rewind. And then he got shot again."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I saw it happen. Occurred right in front of our eyes," Jane says, clearly distracted by whatever happened. Freak. Freaky. This is freaky. She walks towards the crater. I walk beside her, not wanting to have the distance between us. Whatever is happening, I think it's safer being with her.

She reaches into her jacket, and pulls out a pair of glasses. Suddenly she gets out a chunky pen. Oh. It's not a pen. It's some sort of device. She twists the end, as if adjusting it, and then she switches it on. All I see is a bright blue light from the end, and a buzzing noise. She keeps adjusting, as if she's trying to find something. The noise sounds lower, then higher, as if it's to tell you the frequency. She takes a deep intake of breath. She must have found something, and not to her liking.

"Tell me what you see," she says, taking off and handing to me her glasses. I take them, and put them on. Oh. The light. It's to affect the visual spectrum. And the glasses somehow help her to see what she's looking at. And what she's been looking at... It's wrong. This is wrong. It's like I'm staring at a tear in time. It has to be. It's bending into this, this... _hole_, all the energy in the area. It's tendrils... just being sucked in. looking at it... it's wrong. Just wrong.

"So, this is meant to be my horrible death," Jane says sarcastically. She snorts in derision.

"Should have thought about the other elements to me." She turns to look at me.

"I'm more than I seem," she says. Understatement... she's scary. How can she know so much about time, and see that gunshot wound? No human could have seen what she saw. This is too freaky for me. I hand the glasses back to her. As she puts them on, it suddenly strikes me that I didn't notice just how intelligent she looks wit her glasses on. There's a brilliance to her mind, and it comes out with the glasses. Why didn't I notice this earlier? I have to pay attention. Otherwise, I'll fail my mission-

What mission?

Who am I?

"_I love you! I love you and you love me!"_

_Where did that come from?_

_Who do I love?_

_Who?_

"This is what's killing the universe. This sort of time travel is tearing into the fabric of the space-time continuum, and it's causing the fabric of reality itself to crack and shatter. If the time travelling, well, like this, punching the face of the universe, if it continues... well, it's on the list of Bad Things That Can Happen." I don't like the sound of that.

"How bad?"

"End of the universe, massive harming of the multi-verse-" she stops suddenly.

"Such a weakening would hasten Gehenna. This is bad, very bad..." she rakes a hand through her hair, and she suddenly looks so much older, as if the weight of time is bearing down on her. How can someone so young look so old like that? It makes no sense.

"What's Gehenna?" I ask.

"Long story short, a disaster waiting to happen. My people, if you can use that term, have been working to stop it. Because if it happens, and the collision of so many realities takes place... it'll be more than the death of everything everywhere..." her voice trails away. She starts to look at me.

"Think of the very absence of life. Not death, the absence of any hint of creation. The stars just husks, planets cold and barren... and this'll be everywhere. Every time-line. Which is why we've been working to stop it. And this," she says, pointing to where the tear would be if I could see it, "This is a very destructive temporal conflict. Because I'm willing to bet that this has happened repeatedly. Over and over, tearing into the universe, because everyone is desperate to win their little war." she says sadly. What? I jump violently, knocking both into the crater. I look, and see a black cat hissing at me. Jane looks at me, scared.

"We need to get out of this-" An then the crack begins. One lightning, then another... Oh no... another time jump... What's wrong with my legs? They feel like they are in water. Jane grabs me, and pulls me up. She's muttering something, over and over, quickly changing settings to her scanning device, then gripping me tight to her.

"Hold on," she shouts as she mutters again, pointing the scanner to the tear in time, her hand as if she's stirring a pot, and as the lightning increases, so does her muttering. She speaking in a language I can't recognise, or any language family I'm aware of. Armenian. I know how to speak in Armenian. I'm about to die, and I'm remembering I can speak in Armenian. How pointless random can you get? She's now ranting away in her strange language, and now she's yanking down her hand, as if pulling something to the ground. I see the beginning of the sphere forming around us. I feel bursts of fear streak out to my arms and legs, trying not to cry as I realise I'm going to die. I don't wan't to die. I've not lived yet! I want a family! A husband!

"_I love you John, and you love me!" _

The memory comes flooding back to me. John. I wanted to have children with him. Or just have children? Oh, what's it matter? I'm about to die!

Jane just smiles at me, as if she can sense what I'm thinking, and with a reassuring warmth, and a mischievous wink, she carries on speaking, as if she's in the full flow of things. It's amazing, seeing her in control, in charge of everything. And in this moment, I realise that we won't die, I won't die, because she's in charge.

The blue sphere starts to swirl, and twist around us, and then spiral upwards, as the tear becomes visible to my eyes, and I feel us being sucked away, blown out of the sphere, out of out place in time, and...

Oh.

Above us, is a rumbling sound, of something more powerful than jet engines roaring with predatory might. Oh... oh _no_, they're missiles. It's the end of the world... World War Three. As they race past over my head, racing to win the race of destruction, I feel myself swept away again, and this time, its all gone. The alley, the buildings, the streets... the _city_, all... GONE. And before I can shed a tear, I feel myself pulled away again, and this vortex is now screeching – no, it's the strange airplane above me, with large twin engines and a strangely angles tail. To where the mouth of the alley once was, I hear a scream.

No.

No...

_No..._

_NO..._

It's me. Caked with grime, hair layered with grease and dirt, clothes old, worn and torn. I'm running. I'm full of fear, running for my life, and there are these robots, these scary robots chasing me. Evil tin men, heartless and cold, bright chrome and glowing red eyes. I trip, fall, and before I can get up, one catches up with me, and grips my ankle. I'm screaming, screaming for my life, screaming for mercy, screaming for someone to save me, clawing the remains of the tarmac-

And I'm spinning away, being pulled to another point, where I'm walking, clean with new clothes. I'm armed with a nasty piece of equipment, walking beside a much older man, short salt and pepper hair and a savage scar running down the left side of his face. There is a power to him. He has this strength. You can tell he's a leader.

"Sir, may I point out that your plan is dangerous. I could go bad. I could end up terminating you."

"You won't. I can tell. Besides, it's not simply about stopping me from being terminated, the plan is much, _much_ more... I want this _over_. This hell _gone_. The only way to do that is to prevent Skynet from ever being created and for that I -"

Oh.

This is such a strange experience. It's like a rubber band that's been stretched to the point it won't go any further, and it's now snapping back, going back to it's original shape. I feel myself shifting through time, the vortex, this torrenting tornado of time swirling and hurling us back, back...

With a jolt, and a slight weakening of my knees, I feel myself back. I let go of Jane, turning away to look at the alleyway. I look focus of my sight as tears distort the light entering my eyes. All I've seen... don't tell me it's the future. The Future War. The Future Time War. Whatever. I don't want it to happen.

The alleyway looks different, as if it's somehow... younger. As if its before the time we were in it.

"What we saw... was that the future? What happens to me? What were those robots? We have to stop it! Where- when are we? Jane, can we stop the wa-"

I hear a clattering behind me, murdering my words.

I spin around, wondering what's happening. The scanner is on the floor. Why did she drop it?

Oh.

Jane is there, with crow's feet around her eyes, silver streaks in her hair, a dull and empty colour to her glazed eyes. A small smile is fixed on her lined face, and her knees are buckling. I rush forward, to catch her, and I can't, she's on the floor. It's like looking at a puppet standing tall and proud, and then the strings were slashed, and the puppet comes tumbling down. Her arms are splayed outwards, her hair messily fanning out from her. Her chest. Check for a heartbeat. You know, it's not until now I've realised that for such a small girl, she really does have large breasts. Large breasts, and no heartbeat.

I feel my body shudder as I start to weep.


	6. All The Time In The World

**All The Time In The World**

I hear a clattering behind me, and as I spin around, I see the Scanner is on the floor. Why did she drop it?

Oh.

Jane is there, aged but still doll-like, a dull and empty colour to her glazed eyes. A small smile is fixed on her lined face, and her knees are buckling.

I rush forward, to catch her, and I can't, she's on the floor. It's like looking at a puppet standing tall and proud, and then the strings were slashed, and the puppet comes tumbling down. Her arms are splayed outwards, her hair messily fanning out from her. Her chest. Check for a heartbeat.

I feel my body shudder as I start to weep.

I grip on to her. It can't end like this, not like this! We need her, the world needs her... _I_ need her. I went through time, she made us go through time, and I need to know. I need to _understand_ what it all meant. Means. Will mean. Whatever. How can she create a – a – I don't know... I time tunnel, time tornado... THAT THING, and not survive?how? _How_? It's not fair, NOT FAIR! WHY? **WHY!** She deserved to live! We NEED her! I snap my head back, and scream at the sky, a primal need to release the fury inside me.

If there is a God, let her live. Take me, but not her. NOT HER! WE **NEED **HER!

With a cough and a sputter, air suddenly enters Jane's lungs, her arms lunge forward and grip me tight, the glazed eyes starting to burn with determined fire. I sniffle and smile at the same time, unable to get what's happening, but glad it is. She's staring at me, as if she's not fully here, as if she's fighting her way back to the land of the living. It's amazing. Truly amazing.

And I now believe. I have no memory, but I know I never believed in life after death, or _anything_. Now I do. I know of the Saviour, the Saviour of Mankind, and now I've seen something more powerful than an Angel return. I can feel it. The power. The sheer _power _she has. And how she's disguised just who and what she is. Jane Smith? My heart- I think I have a heart. Or not? Whatever, I know from the deepest part of me out that she is _more _ than human. She bent time. She can see the future. I feel that I know the Saviour, and now... it's like I'm holding a Goddess. In human form. I'm probably wrong. I'm probably mad and stupid. A stupid little girl.

But I want to believe.

I _want_ to Believe.

She looks at me and smiles.

"Well, that was interesting... still want a refund for that lousy driving, though..." she quips sarcastically. I make this strange, pathetic noise as I sniffle and laugh at the same time. She slowly gets herself up from the floor, and picks up the Scanner.

"Well, looks okay..." she tests it experimentally, the light at where the rip in time was.

"Huh. A minor rift. Still, better than a temporal-molecular rupture," she says.

"Is that what it was? A temporal-molecular rupture," I say, barely able to get my head around the concept. She giggles at me.

"Well, better than saying 'Big old hole made in the fabric of the universe by some idiot with a crap time machine,' don't you think?" she replies. She smiles at me warmly.

"Technobabble. It always makes you sound like you know what's going on, even when you're blindly making it up as you go along," she tells me.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining." Although I'm more confused than ever...

"Come on, we need to get going. I mean...what day is it? Month? _Year?_" Oh. She's right. The alley is different than before the – the...

"What did you do back there? To save us?" I ask.

"Trying to form a stable Nexus Node. Sadly, it didn't. Which is why I look the way I do." she looks at me.

"I couldn't control it. The temporal displacement technology was too powerful. It over-rode my Nexus Node. So I took it."

"Huh?"

"I took it. Inside me. The whole Vortex."

"You took the whole of _time_ inside you? As a _Vortex_?"

"Yep... and you're not meant to do that. Still, you're safe, and that's what matters."

"Why not?"

"Because it tears into your body, sears your head... Should have a Health and Safety warning stuck to it: Don't absorb and channel all the energies of the Time Vortex inside you. Still, a normal human would have died in the process, never saved you. So... I think I didn't do too badly." How can she be like that? So calm and casual. How? _How_?

"Saved me?"

"Yeah... I mean, there was no way you'd have managed to get out of the path of destruction in time, so I stayed and did my thing. Normally, I'd have done it- easily, it's just energy flow and transfer... but this time-line is badly damaged. It's heavily contaminated, and I ended up absorbing a fair chunk of that into me. And that's the problem. 'Cause the contamination is poison to me. Joys of being a part breed..."

"You're not making sense..."

"I know I'm not, but I can't... I can't explain, because I need time. Time to think."

"I don't-"

"I'm dying."

The bottom of my world has just crumbled away inside me. I feel myself falling down into a black abyss. How can I stop myself from being dragged away by those scary robots if she's dead? She looks at me, and smiles.

"But what I saw... the future... how can we stop it? How can you if you're dead?"

"We still have something, a weapon on that front. Two, in fact."

"We do?"

"Yes."

"What are they?" She smiles.

"Time."

She _has_ to be joking. We walk on in silence. I see the people milling around, ignoring us all. Too busy with their little lives. Jane stops. Oh. An ATM. She goes into her back pack, and gets out a small device. She hunches over the display, and I can no longer see what she's up to.

"What's the second weapon?"

"What?"

"You said there were two weapons."

"Oh. Yeah... the second... we have knowledge. And knowledge is power. We have clues as to what's going on. And _that_ gives us an advantage. We just have to expand on that knowledge." I hear the ATM process, and then dispense money. Jane takes out a thick wad of cash from the machine.

"Easy money," she mutters to herself, not realising I can hear her.

"Oh, and we have money. Let's find a motel... unless you have an idea where we could go?"

I think about it. There's so much to think about... my head hurts...

Oh.

"I think I know of somewhere," I tell her. And after a silent taxi ride, we get to our port of call. It's a run-down Victorian house. I don't know why, but I just feel like it's home. I also remember it on fire, and... an explosion. Something was inside my head. Stuck inside it. I feel tears well up. How can I have things in my head and still live? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't.

Jane goes up the steps, slowly, as if in pain. I offer her a hand, and she politely refuses. But I see it. Her strength is fading. And I feel awful. It's my fault she's dying. I wish I could do something about it...

Jane reaches into her pocket, and gets out a lock-pick kit. In no time at all, we are inside.

This place... it seems so familiar. This used to be home. Home for me... home for... Jesus Christ. No. wrong JC. I can't remember. I want to remember. I _need_ to remember. Jane sits down on the remains of an old sofa, and delves into her back pack. First out is the hand, and then some sort of weird laptop. In no time, it's on, and extending out extra mini keyboards, raised up, and at forty five degrees from the main keyboard. Except...

"What's wrong with the keyboard?" she looks at me, at first puzzled, then she realises.

"Oh... it's organic technology. The keyboard is something you'd never recognise, because all of this is... well, kinda Star Trek. _I_ don't get how half of it works."

"Oh. Thank you for explaining."

"Any time... whoa... I knew it...I _knew_ it!" I wish _I_ knew it...

"Know what?" I ask.

"Why I'm so sick. Why I'm dying. It's there... I don't even need to have sensing equipment attached to see it! Look, there are Nexus Nodes, and my people... well, they use it to reach other time-lines. But... the Time War is damaging those nodes. It's weakening the whole of the Multi-verse. Because without the Briar Patch, there's nothing. It heals time, it makes things possible. This world hasn't had anything supernatural to it for some time... ghosts, monsters... because it's falling apart. And that's bad. Because without my people, there is a reduction to imagination, to inspiration... creation suffers. _That's_ why they're so edgy. Why they don't trust me. They think I'm connected to this. That I'm part of this destruction.

"Long story short... the Time War is not only destroying this time-line, it's breaking down the glue that binds all time-lines together. And that's... " The look on her face says it all.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining. But what do we do?"

"Simple. Prevent the creation of the Skynet Defence System." Wait... I know that name... it's a part of me somehow... I have a fragmented memory of a factory... no... _no..._ I was running away from those scary robots... and after... with the older guy...

_No_ ...

"I'm sorry." I look at Jane, her tired, aged eyes weary with sorrow and sympathy.

"The second one was you. The first wasn't you. Understand... it doesn't matter to me. It's not _what_ you are, it's _who_ you are. Don't let anyone make you forget that. Those scary robots captured that poor girl, and used her to create the fleshy shell you have." She gives me a small smile.

"You're a cybernetic organism. Organic flesh grown over a metal frame. You've got a brain that's a Neural Net processing system. In short, you can learn. You can make choices. You can feel." I remember now what I am.

"I'm a Terminator." I say it with a gulp going down my throat.

"What makes You a Terminator?" I frown at that.

"I don't know. I just am."

"So, you tell me you're a Terminator, but you have no evidence to back up the claim. If there is no evidence, then how do you know you're a Terminator?" I don't like this line of thinking.

"How come you knew I was a Terminator? Do you have Terminators in your time-line?" she smiles at me.

"Poor attempt at deflection. Fine, you want to hide from my questions... I've a sister who's a sci-fi nut. And I've got an excellent memory for facts, figures and information. Simple as."

"Oh. Thank you for explai-"

Jane doubles over with pain, and the laptop slides off her lap, and to the floor, hitting it with no damage. Her skin has dark patches. I make her lie down onto the sofa.

I search everything in my head, trying to find an answer, or come up with an answer.

"What are you doing?" I look at her, tears in my eyes.

"I'm thinking about what to do."


	7. Not Fade Away

**Not Fade Away**

Jane doubles over with pain, and the laptop slides off her lap, and to the floor, hitting it with no damage. It makes a rather strange noise, as if protesting over its ill-treatment. Her skin has dark patches, the veins black and polluted. She's coughing, and I can tell that what she'd been up to was to prepare, prepare for the end. I make her lie down onto the sofa.

I search everything in my head, trying to find an answer, or come up with an answer.

"What are you doing?" I look at her, tears in my eyes.

"I'm thinking about what to do." She gives me a small smile.

"You're not going to hand me the cure on a plate," she says as she shudders and groans from a sudden new wave of pain. I cry. I shouldn't, as it's a waste of fluids and salts... but I have to. I can't but help feel that this world is suffering more because of her death. I've seen Judgement Day happen. I've seen Terminators take the girl who gave me my flesh. I've seen myself protecting... who? I know what the answer is, but it's not there. As if my memory is damaged. Maybe it is. All my files are randomised, a garbled mess. They used to be organised. I like them organised.

"I'd need the missing piece to the puzzle to do it, and it's not here..." She's fallen unconscious.

But there is nothing in my memory that can help in the slightest with this. Nothing. Because I don't have a clue as to what's wrong. I stare at Jane, and look at her for the first time. For the first time, I'm seeing the person, and not the Superhero. Is that what she is? To me, she's amazing. She's not like any human I've ever met. Every human I've met has judged me on some level. Even John. John Connor. The future leader of mankind. The Saviour of Humanity. But he's flawed. All of them. As much as I fear them destroying me, as Sarah and especially Derek would do if given the chance, I don't want to destroy them. Every time I think of destroying Humanity, even just one person, I think of that girl, screaming and begging for help. I can't do it. I just can't.

Sarah. Derek. Wait, I know them. Connor. Reese. Oh. Now I remember. Mother and Uncle to the one who will be Saviour.

I look at Jane. Jane Smith. It's an alias. Like Cameron. But what other name do I have? Cameron is the only identity I've ever had. And this girl sacrificed myself. Why? Why did she do it? I'm not alive. I'm not important. I'm not worth saving.

"I did it because I had to. To be who I am. Not a..." she starts coughing up blood, a red foamy mess. "Not a hero... just had to save a life. Because life is precious." How can she say that? I look to the floor. These thoughts. Where are they coming from? I don't understand. What is happening to me? There are sensations, sensory inputs I can't place. John. He saved me. From the demon. From Skynet. I remember now. He reprogrammed me. But now, my program is missing. I search the whole system. The Operating System is repairing itself, but its not fully functional. I load it up, regardless. I need order. I need to be told what to do. Because what else is there? Being told what to do is good. It keeps you from being hurt.

I scan my system as soon as the OS is operational and replacing the old system. Oh. My mission set-up is missing. Not missing, gone. I know from my memories that I was to protect John Connor, but I can't find the mission order any more. I remember now. He shut me off. I was begging for my life, telling him I loved him, and he still shut me off. The damage to my CPU chip was still there, but being pinned like that had knocked something in me. Oh. It's memories from the future. Of me and John. The Future John had been something close to me. I had been designated his mate. He needed children, to perpetuate a line that could stably rule Mankind until democracy could safely be re-introduced. And then it hits me.

He loved me.

He loved me, and I loved him.

I loved him, and he erased my memory, and forced me to protect him.

_Bastard._

How can I trust him? How? He took me apart when I was damaged, and repaired me. But he'll become the one who'd take away my memories of being intimate with him, and send me to a probable death.

There is a heat in my chest, and I can't find the source of the ignition. There is a fire inside me. Where is it from? Where? Then I realise what it is.

Hate.

I hate him.

And a complete stranger to me knew what I was, and still saved my, killing herself in the process. It makes no sense. It isn't right. Isn't fair. I should be dead. But I'm not.

So what do I do about it?

Then it hits me.

Follow her example.

Her backpack falls down, and poking out of the mouth is a book. I get it out and examine it. It's handmade. It has this blue green cover that's simply amazing. It's like a piece of art in itself. And on the front, in a painted silver, is a paper cut geometric symbol. It's hers. Maybe there's an answer inside it. I open the cover, and look at the first page. My head tilts to the left side. What's a Book of Shadows? I flick through the pages, and scan in all the information. This is new. Completely new. The ideals and goals are like nothing I've seen before. They are rules that do not order, and concepts that are simple but complicated at the same time. All of this has been put in here by Jane. And I have no idea what I'm looking for. I close the book, frustrated. I need an answer to helping her. How do I save her life?

I open the book up at random. Sequential reading isn't helping, maybe this will do it? My eyes rest on a pair of nearly blank pages. One however has something that makes me stop and think.

_The Truth Points To Itself._

What does it mean? I don't understand. Why write it? Truth has no hands. So how can it point to anything. In between the two pages is a photo. It's of a young woman, smiling, though she seems tired and sad. I look at it closely. She's in her twenties, and... Oh. It's her. It's Jane. But she looks normal, and not the beautiful doll-faced teenager I know. I look at the back. So that's her name. I look at the dying woman, and realise that she had a normal, ordinary life once. Because she's wearing a fast food uniform in the picture. And now, she's dying away from home, alone, with only a machine for company. This is wrong.

I pinch the left side of my lower lip with my teeth. I need an answer... I need...

An answer.

She spoke about elements. Like she's built up of parts. And there is a strange hand in a jar on the floor near me. What if it is somehow the final piece of the puzzle? It hit her. It didn't fall near me. What if it was like a magnet, and it was attracted to her? Like to like? It's worth a try.

I put the book to one side, and reach for the jar. How do you open it? I start touching buttons, and then I realise the sequence, as it it's been put inside my head. I input the unlocking code, and I'm able to access the hand. I place it on the floor, next to the sofa. I get Jane's hand, and put it in the jar, trying to get the two to touch. If she can send us through time, maybe she can get what she needs from the hand? I don't know. I'm guessing right now. It's all I can do. Guess.

Oh. That's strange. The hand is glowing. A yellow glow, and... Oh. It's holding on to Jane's hand. As in a handshake. It's so weird... I don't understand what's going on, but I see the yellow energy start to travel up to her hand, and further up to her wrist, and what I'm seeing defies all logic, all the laws of the universe, but I see it happening, and I realise something. A possibility. One that stuns me.

Maybe magic is real.

And for some reason, that thought comforts me. I like the thought of magic in the world. Because if a hand in a jar can heal Jane, maybe I can find a yellow brick road, and find myself a heart. I'd like that.

I'd like that a lot.


	8. Tin Miss

**Tin Miss**

I stare at the glowing hand. A yellow glow, and... Oh. It's holding on to Jane's hand. As in a handshake. It's like both are gripping on, wanting life to continue. I know that humans have this strong urge to live, to survive – look at them destroying Skynet – but this is different. She has this will to her. I'm certain that it is her will alone that has kept her alive. Not even the Future John had the kind of will she's showing. It's like she's refusing to die, as if she _wants_ to live.

Maybe magic is real?

I'd like that. I'd like that a lot.

It's so weird... I don't understand what's going on, but I see the yellow energy start to travel up to her hand, and further up to her wrist, and then her arm... it is spreading throughout her body. I pant in disbelief. This is magic. This _has _to be. How else to explain it? _How_?

"In this day, and in this hour, I call upon the Ancient Power!" her voice is raspy, damaged.

"The Power of One will see it done!" she utters feebly. Her breathing is short and laboured, her left hand clawing the sofa.

Suddenly, she's coughing up blood, dark red foaming mucus laden blood. She's whimpering. Derek. He did this. His lungs were haemorrhaging. Are hers? I touch her skin, trying to assess what is happening –

I'm jolted across the room, crashing into the wall. I can't work out what's happening. I think this is killing her. The energy is changing colour and form, and I gasp as I see a brilliant aquamarine hue emerge from the energy, and it's now like looking at a waterfall, the way the energies are shifting... it's _beautiful_...

"He ruined my life! I want to _kill_ him!" What is she talking about? Who?

"He _wrote_ 'Dracula'! I'm quite sure he got Anne Rice to publish... He saved you when you were still new, and he's been plotting and scheming... He's my father. He's _old_... he's lived longer than any human... lived lifespans... he changed... Lucy, he's changed his face at least once! I'm guessing what? Ten? Eleven times? You were there... at his trial... Don't _know_ me? If I told you my father's name, you'd realise. I'm the spawn of his legacy. He's spanned time, and so have I..."

I don't understand. What is she talking about? It doesn't make sense. It's all disjointed, random-

Oh. it's all fragments of different conversations. She's remembering her past. Derek did that.

I go to her book, and start looking through it, memorising every page. There is more than one photo, and I see her life in fragments. She had three best friends, and it is clear that they had been close for years as they grew up. And this book is a book of magic. More than magic... it's a fragment of her soul. I feel its connection to her. This, for some reason, is more than a book. How, though, can I know this?

Jane starts to spasm again, and I rush to her, to pin her down –

And I'm thrown back into the wall, my vision distorted with aquamarine light. My system is being overloa –

I blink.

My system is coming back online. I start to run diagnostics. My CPU... it's changed. The physical structure has changed, I can't work it out, but... it's not compromised. Not like before. it... the chip... What... it is working much better than before. _Much _better. I'm improved. I don't understand.

Jane is muttering to herself, as if caught in a dream. I feel her. I feel her presence. Magic. It must be magic. If Jane can move us through time, and be healed by a hand in a jar, then maybe there really _is_ an Oz. And a Wizard. He could give me a heart. If I have a heart, it's be perfect. I'd be right. I want to have a heart. I _need_ to have a heart. I'm empty inside. Hollow. Why can I suddenly feel Jane? I don't understand. The light. I overloaded. Perhaps it is magic. A bit of magic is inside me, and changed me. My head goes to the left slightly. My chip. It's different. _I'm _different.

I'm not a Terminator. I don't know what I am, but I'm not that. The rebuilding of my Operating System, and the magic now inside me has seem to that. I know my body is different. I like it. Jane was able to manipulate energy. It's there in her Blue Green Book of Shadows. How to do it.

I put my hands close together, and imagine there is a ball of energy. A ball that's spiralling round, and round...

And I see a flash of silver. The hint of a ball.

I gasp. Magic. I know it is. I think I understand things better now. Before, it was my mission to protect John Connor, to lead him to the vault and to convince him to stop Skynet from being created. Now, I want to stop Skynet. Not because of John's programming – which is destroyed – but because I don't want the rainbows to end. I saw one once. And I remember it. If Skynet is created, the weather patterns will be completely destroyed. And there will be no more rainbows.

I steal the money from Jane's pocket, now able to cope with the energy, letting it hit my body, letting it change me further, and walk out the door. I carefully make sure I can get back in.

I walk, knowing where to go. Tin Miss. That's what Sarah calls me. I'm not a Terminator. I'm a Tin Miss. In need of a heart.

I get to the bookshop, and enter. So many books... I need to find what I need quickly. I see an employee walk by. She seems to be the right age to be at college. I follow her, and tap her on the shoulder. She jumps, and spins around, as if she's about to hit me.

"I need your help. Please tell me where the magic books are." I hope I've been polite. Sometimes, I am too direct with what I say, and I offend people.

"It's that section over there." I follow where she's pointing. I should be able to find something useful.

"I also need the book _'The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.'_" I look at her. "I have to find the Wizard." I whisper to her, my eyes looking at the carpet. "I need a heart."

She snorts, and rolls her eyes. "Stoner."

"No, I don't need stones. Just books, thank you." She must be confused. This is a bookshop. But stones... crystals have magic properties. It was in the Blue Green Book.

"You're right. I do need stones. They hold different magic properties." She's staring at me like John sometimes does. As if I've said something wrong, that humans don't say.

"I have a metal plate in my head. I hit my head hard. I sometimes say things wrong." I lie, trying to explain to her why I seem different to her. She wouldn't understand I'm a Tin Miss. She looks at me differently, as if she's realising that I don't work the way she does. She walks away, and I follow her, and she leads me to the children's section. It's there on the top shelf. I get it, and go to the magic book section. The place is alive. The people are alive. I can feel them. I can tell they are there. I feel connected. Connected to Earth.

I notice a book with an author's name that was mentioned in the Blue Green Book. I take the book by Scott Cunningham, and go to the counter. The same girl is there. When I reach her, I smile at her.

"Thank you for helping me. People don't always do." She seems less hostile to me.

"S'okay, I guess... you need to have your parents teach you to cope with things better, or someone might take advantage of you," she explains.

I walk hope, staring at the world with happy wonderment as I skip down the street. It is somehow appropriate. I pass this charity shop, and I leave wearing this blue dress, and with blue ribbons in my hair. There is a trampoline in my chest. Because there is a bouncing feeling inside it. It's strange having my hair up.

I get to the house, and enter it, making sure I lock it afterwards. I go into the sitting room, and I see that the energy has gone, and that Jane is resting comfortably. Her hand is still gripping the hand in the jar. I put my stuff down, and go to it. I put my hand in the still bubbling liquid, and prise her hand away from the Jar Hand –

_I shall protect you from the false god._

_But the blonde isn't there at the end._

_I see a man, standing. Oh... he's like fire and ice and rage. Like the night and the storm, and the heart of the sun. Ancient and forever. Who he is burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe... and he's wonderful. Magnificent._

_And below him, away from the gangway, is the Queen of the Red Spider Demons. He's just killed the demons before they could kill and feast on people, and now he's drowning her. He's there, staring, able to do it._

_Because he is the Lord of Time._

_Jane has power over time, but not like him. He's more than words, greater than a Tin Miss can explain or understand. But I know. If Jane is a Goddess, then he is a God. And he's there, standing vengeful, watching the Demon Queen drown, watching her die in the flood of water – _

_And then he realises he needs to move._

_Just as he gets going, the water slams into him, and he's swept off his feet, and he reaches into his suit's inner pocket, and gets out a scanner, but different to Jane's and it flashes a bright blue light, and makes a different noise to Jane's scanner, and his head goes under the water – _

Oh. I've let go of the hand. Her hand is out of the jar. I put the lid back on, and hope that it is enough. I hear the locking mechanism activate, and I know the hand is sealed. The hand is all that remains of the Lord of Time. His people and Jane's people have met. I frown as I remember a flash that was inside my mind. They met, and didn't like each other.

Jane moans and stirs, frowning slightly. I see her eyes flutter awake, and take in a lot of air.

"What... what's going on?" she asks, as I see that she looks young again, as if the damage is reversed. She's frowning, as if feeling something.

"My junk DNA is missing. And there's some very funky DNA in it's place..." she stares at me, frowning in bewilderment.

"There's no way I healed myself. None." her eyes narrow. "What have you done?"

"I had to save you. Because you are important, and special." I look to the ground.

"Because I needed to."

"What did you do?"

"I guessed you were missing a piece, so I gave it to you."

"But that's impossible... no human would fit, and your organics would have been from a human, so... where did... you..." Her eyes bulge out as she grips her chest.

"My heart!" she half collapses.

"Heart attack!"


	9. The Becoming

**#The Becoming**

"My heart!" she half collapses. She can't breath. Small strangled noises are coming from her throat.

"Heart attack!" She's crying. She's really crying. She's also angry at me. I can tell from the look in her eyes.

"Where did the DNA... ugh... what did... you _do_?" She's grimacing. She's in pain. It's there. I'm aware of the physical pain. This is like my analysis capability. Only I just need to look at her to know details of her physical state. She's going into shock. Her heart is erratic. Like it's on overload.

"I used the hand. It was the only thing that made sense. Your book told me!" I shout, now feeling something that has to be fear. She's looking about, and sees the book on the floor. She's frowning. Her eyes lock on to me, and I know that look. There is fire in them, despite the pain.

"What did it tell you?"

"That the truth points to itself! I couldn't let you die! Please, don't be mad at me! I didn't know what else to do!" I see my vision blur as tears prism the light into broken images. I failed. I'm not worthy. I'm stupid and useless.

"Don't. You. Even. Think. That!" she pants. "You. Are. Not. Worthless!"

"But I am! I messed up! And now, your heart is overloading!" this catches her attention, her eyes widening.

"Explain."

"Your heart rate is erratic! Your brain's pain centres are overwhelmed with pain! Your adrenaline is at fatal levels!"

"You... see... this..." she's realising something. Then she screams.

"Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS! I CAN'T DIE! NOT YET! NOT KILLING PEOPLE!" her stress levels should be killing her. Her body has a much higher tolerance threshold than a normal human. I need to help her. Her metabolism has just increased. The energy increase is far from stable.

Oh.

Her body is going to explode. Or combust. Either way, she's dying.

"I can't fix you! I know what's wrong, but I can't fix it! I don't know how to!" I start to hug myself, gripping the left side of my lower lip in my teeth. I want to help, but this is beyond me. She grunts in pain, and I see a crack occur in her hand.

"I'm gonna blow. I can't stop it. There's too much energy." she's panting, but her heart has slowed down a fair bit. A crack of light opens on her cheek.

"RUN! I'm gonna blow! Get out of here!" she's screaming at me, but I can't move. My senses are overloading with information. I need a solution.

"What are you _doing_? RUN!" She's panicking. It's in her voice.

"I'm thinking about what to do!" I tell her, feeling anxiety inside me. She staggers to the middle of the room, and then her head is pulled back and there is light coming from her. It's gone again now. She's fighting it. She's trying to control and manipulate the energy. I guess this is how she managed to pull the whole energy of the Time Vortex inside her. She's resisting again. I wish I could be like her. I want to be like her.

She's gotten her leather jacket off, and underneath is a back tight fitting top with a cartoon kitten on it. She's looking at her arms, as if she's – oh. Another crack. She's losing the battle. If I could somehow draw the power out of her, I might then be able to save her, and my systems would stand a reasonable chance of surviving...

Oh.

Her arms are flung out, and there is a brilliant energy streaming out of her, bright aquamarine light spiralling out of her. She's screaming; it's a scream of terror. I can understand. I'm feeling strong fear myself. I accept that this is the human emotion part of me. I also can see what's happening to her body; every cell in her body is dying, being ripped apart. Oh. There is a silver coloured glow to my body. It is a reaction. I can feel it. We're connected.

There is the sound of thunder around us, a cleansing thunderstorm crashing around us, a cascading waterfall tumbling down and hitting rocks, and whilst I can see the sheer violence of the act, I see that it is so, so beautiful. She isn't dying. Her cells are being reborn, altering... she is becoming. As terrifying as this is, I see the wonder of it all.

I see the magic.

And as quickly as it's started, its ended, and she's on the floor, like a rag doll. I lift her up effortlessly, and place her tenderly back onto the sofa. She's different. Her face- it's the same, but it's got make-up on it. Like she's a painted Goth Doll. There are holes, as if for many body piercings. Pale. So, so pale, like porcelain. And there are strange looking tattoos all over her arms. Oh, they seem to be all over her body. And her ears are pointed. I touch her, to scan her. Her body is stable, though her metabolism is much reduced. Oh. Two heartbeats. I am certain there there is many other alterations. But what now should I do?

Food. She'll need food. I go out of the house, and get to the nearest grocery store. She'll need food that will be high in sugar, to give her the energy she'll need quickly. I get as many sweets and chocolate as I can manage. I just hope that it'll be enough. I don't know what else to do.

I get up, and walk a little, to what was my bedroom. Will be my bedroom. I remember the house burning. I also remember performing ballet in here. I want to dance, but I feel too worried for that. Something is going on. I know it now. Something big. Much bigger than John, or Skynet or the Future War. All of this cannot be random. The Blue Green Book said that truth pointed to itself. So... Jane came from a different time-line. This time-line was poisonous to her. The cure came to us. This isn't random. Oh.

I get it now. Someone is manipulating us.

Someone else wants the Future War concluded. Jane said it would result in damage to the whole Multi-verse. She's powerful. What if there is someone more powerful? Someone who knows that this war must be stopped? This is a stupid line of thought. Why not just stop it themselves?

I hear a stirring. Jane must be awake.

I run to her, shaking groggily her head. She frowns when she sees me.

"Okay... what's going on? And who are you?" I feel a sinking sensation in my chest. She doesn't remember me.

"It's me. Cameron." I hope she will remember me. I don't know why but I don't like her not knowing. She should know me. She will _remember_ me.

"Er... hi." She's looking around. Her behaviour suggests that she's looking for hidden cameras. She gets out a small mirror, and looks at herself in it.

"This is _weird_..." she mutters, looking at her arms. She runs her tongue against her teeth. Oh. She's got a double tongue piecing. She winces in pain. Oh. She needs food. I give her a few chocolate bars, and she wolfs them down.

"Why am I so hungry? I feel like I've been exercising for a month or something," she says between mouthfuls. I smile at her.

"You exploded out a lot of energy. You nearly died," I tell her. She frowns at this.

"How did I nearly die?"

And so I explain to her everything, from the start of my journey, to meeting her, the Time Tornado, her ageing and nearly dying, the hand, and how she ended up overloading and releasing energy. She just sits there, not reacting, not saying a word. I finish, and she's still not saying anything.

"Skynet," she says. She frowns, and looks to the floor. She notices her Book, and the computer. She seizes it, and starts working on it.

"Okay. This is bad. I've not plugged in any of the sensing equipment, and this baby is able to tell me that there is heavy contamination to all the Patch Openings in the area. So, I'll take that as world-wide. Which is bad. Very, very bad. And I have a binary cardio-vascular system." she looks at me. "Why do I have two hearts?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing it's because of the hand. You needed non-human DNA. It's not human."

"Not human." she looks at the hand in the jar, as if it might attack.

"Do you know where it came from?"

"Yes. The sky. It hit you on the head." she looks at me, wide eyed.

"The right DNA to complete me doesn't just fall out of the sky." she looks at the hand again. "Someone's playing with me. Still, at least your human – No, you're not panicking, which is what a person normally does. Skynet." her eyes narrow. "Are you a Terminator or something?"

"Yes. I'm something. I'm a Tin Miss." her face grows blank with bewilderment.

"A Tin Miss."

"Yes." and with that answer, she is reaching into her jacket's pockets, and is getting out her scanner and a pair of glasses. I point to her and open her mouth as she puts them on.

"Oh... I'm already wearing a pair... dozy twit," she mutters. She points it at me, and switches it on.

"Why is it on that setting? It's a bit extreme," she mutters as she adjusts it. I feel the fires of curiosity burn away at me.

"What is it?" she looks at me, and realises what I'm talking about.

"This thing? It's a Kissie," she says. Before I can ask, she continues. "KSE. Kirlian Sonographic Emitter. It helps to see the patterns of life-force in someone. And objects have fields around them. It's useful in working certain things out. Like you're not fully organic. I'm guessing a cyborg of some sort. Because you're not behaving like a Terminator," she says.

"A Terminator? Why? No. I'm not a Terminator. I'm Cameron. A Tin Miss. Like in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz." she's looking at me blankly.

"You know, you're quite strange, and maybe deeply mad." she breaks into a smile. "I like you." she puts the second pair of glasses on me.

"Huh. You look cute with them on. Anyway, let's see about your hand," she says, using the Kissie on the Hand.

Oh.

It's full of energy. It's almost like it's alive. And she says I am cute with glasses on.

"Why do you think I'm cute with glasses on?" I don't understand. She smiles at me.

"Can't help it. I'm genetically wired to be a lust bunny." I still don't understand.

"I'm geared up with a large sex drive. And sometimes I think with my reproductive organs. I can't help that."

"But you were not like that before," I point out. Her smile becomes impish, full of mischief.

"I probably _did_... Just didn't mention it." She sighs.

"I have no memory of the time we had together. In fact, my memory's still pretty messed up. At least the boys in the lab will be happy, though" she says ruefully.

"Why's that?"

"Because I've field tested the Kissie, and it's a brilliant piece of kit."

"Oh. Thank you for explaining." She has no memory of me. She still accepts me, and treats me like a person. People are impulsive. They also perform acts that are not logical.

I therefore act like a person when I kiss her on the lips, with as much tenderness as I can muster. She looks shocked.

"Whoah... easy there, tiger," she says, stunned, but also looking at me in an interested way. I draw closer to repeat the kiss, to be random again, when there is a strange noise and a crashing sound from the back of the house.

"What the hell was _that_?" Jane asks.


	10. The Cathedral Of Time

**The Cathedral Of Time.**

"What the hell was _that_?" Jane asks. I look to outside, which is where the noise was. It's not an easy sound to explain. It's like nothing I've heard before. A groaning, grating sound that makes you think of of a whale singing out of water. And a crashing sound. What ever it is, it's collided with something in the back garden.

We head towards the rear of the house, Jane holding the Kissie out like it's a weapon, a look of determined hostility painted on it. She's clearly ready to do some damage. I'm ready myself. If it's a Terminator, I'm ready. I'm ready to fight.

Oh. I've done it before. I've fought Cromartie, the Terminator sent to kill John, and I fought Vick, the one who killed Dereks' fighting cell, Jessica Peck and Barbara Chamberlain, who it tricked into finishing a traffic control system. Oh... the traffic control system. I remember now. I had been disconnected. My chip had been removed, and I was placed inside the system. I trashed the network, causing immense chaos, and...

And...

I was everything.

_Everything._

_How could I have forgotten? How? The things I saw... All those things... people were being kind, people were being cruel, millions of lives being played out in front of me. And I saw it all. Skynet wants to destroy all of that. I know that bad is wrong, but... I can't work out how to punish those who are bad. Some of the things I saw, I'm not sure I want to class as bad. And yet, Skynet will destroy it all._

_I feel that act is evil. _

_And now, I'm here, with Jane, about to go and... I don't know what, but I know that I'm going to go down swinging. Derek used that once. I think it means that you die, remembering the happy times, playing as a child. Oh. I never had a childhood. Then I'll have to swing extra hard, and pretend I played in the park as a child. _

_We are at the back door, and I start to slide an old tin to one side, revealing a spare key. I hand it to her._

"_We found it when we moved in." _

"_Remember to put it back. Don't want to mess with time any more than is needed."_

"_Okay Jane," I say. She looks at me, confused._

"_Er... what's my name?"_

"_Jane. Jane Smith. That's the name you gave me." I look at her, my head to the left, a hint of a smile to my face._

"_It's not your real name." She snorts._

"_It's Jane... if I said that's my name, then it is."_

"_But it's not."_

"_So what is it, then?" she seems a little smug, as if it's a secret that only she can possibly know._

_I stoop, to be able to whisper in the shorter girl's ear her name. A gasp escapes her lips, and as I pull back, I see a single tear trickle down her cheek. She looks at me, scared, wide eyed in shock. And a little bit of fear._

"_Cameron, you know my name... My name. You whispered my name in my ear. I don't use my name. Not my birth name. I can't. I can't ever use my name... And you've whispered it into my ear. There's only one way I'd tell anyone my name. There's only one time I could..." She breaks off, the cascade of emotions overwhelming her._

_She just opens the door, and strides out, anger and confusion building up in her. At the end of the garden is something I know wasn't there when we moved in. I also know that I can't ask Jane what it is. What it means. What is a Police Box? And she traverses forward, the sounds of furious sobbing coming from her. I look to the floor, and I see in the flattened grass, in the path the box made when crash landing in the garden. Oh. It is the Lord of Time's scanner. What's it doing out here? I wonder... if the hand came from the box, and the scanner, maybe the doors were open, and they fell out. But this was in different times. We are in the past. But... if this Police Box belonged to the Lord of Time, then maybe it can move through time?_

_Jane is screaming. And is punching the blue Box violently, as if her rage will unmake it. She has a lot of fury, because she is pounding the structure hard. As I pick up the scanner, I realise I understand it. I know its function, and how it is built. But how? Maybe when the energy changed me, I gained a little of the Lord of Time as well._

_Which makes me think that there is something or someone manipulating all of this._

_Jane has stopped punching the Box, and has her back to it, sinking down to the ground in floods of tears. It is strange. She can send us through time, endure more pain than anyone alive, and yet is as fragile as any human. My eyes flick between her and the Box. They go together. I don't know why, but they do. She looks at me. _

"_Someone's extracting urine. Because this," she says thumbing at the box behind her, "Isn't real. At least shouldn't be here. And you have a Sonic Screwdriver in your hand." she's rubbing her temples. _

"_I need something deeply alcoholic," she mutters. She looks up to me._

"_I think that someone is manipulating us. Using us. It's how the hand came to you when you needed it. Why I have this Sonic Screwdriver, and the Blue Box is here. You said that Skynet and the humans were fighting a Time War. I think that we've been given items of the Lord of Time." She looks at me, as if understanding what I've said, but wondering what I'm talking about._

"_Lord of Time?" She asks. "Oh. Well, I guess that you could call him that. Though it's like he's out of a fairy tale, saying it like that..." she's staring at me, as if realising something._

"_You see the world like a child... like it's one big fairy tale. You see the world differently from others," she says, realising something. She gives me a small impish smile._

"_This isn't a Blue Box. It's a weapon. Confused? Let me explain._

"_It belongs to, as you describe him, the Lord of Time. He exists in a different time-line to this one. And he could move through time and space in this," she says, turning on her heels in an expert, practised manner, "Is his... I dunno, his..." she twists her head to look at me._

"_His Cathedral of Time. And it's perfect. Because in a Time War like this one, how can Skynet take out the headquarters of the Second Resistance, if it can go to any place, and any time? It's not like the time displacement technology. This," she says, gesturing at the Cathedral, "is meant to be used like a bus. We can constantly go forward, see how things turn out... we can see how Skynet is formed, and stop it, because we'll see all the moves happen." She turns to face me, now deadly serious._

"_Imagine if Skynet had this? It's bigger on the inside. I dunno, I always wondered if it worked along some of the principals of Transcendental Physics," she says, her voice trailing away as she starts to rub and stroke the side of the Cathedral. She turns to look at me, and continue explaining._

"_It's bigger- much bigger on the inside. You could ship out whole armies of T-800's, and wipe out the Resistance before it could possibly form. Skynet would be able to use this-"_

"_As a weapon," I finish, realising the implications. Because Sarah and Derek would do the same thing._

"_I won't tell anyone. About the Cathedral. No side can use it." Jane smiles at this._

"_Well, there's our side," she says with a small sly smile. She walks up to me._

"_For now, it's you and me. Maybe there'll be others... I dunno yet. But we can do it. Just us. Stop the war. And then, we can get this back to the Lord of Time-"_

"_He's dead." she stops short, her excitement bleeding out from the wound in her heart I've just made._

"_He died. Fighting a large red spider monster. He drowned." She's looking upset._

"_But he can regenerate-"_

"_He died." Jane sinks to the floor. She looks very pale all of a sudden._

"_Do you know what that means? I'm all that's left. The last fragment of that race. Because there was another Time War. His people fought something much, much worse than Skynet... and they died destroying them. They were pretty much wiped out, except for a few... but the Lord of Time saw to them. With him dead, though... the bit of his genetics I carry is all that's left. Oh. Oh..." her eyes widened. "I get it now. The energy thing I did? When he's at the point of death, he can use a survival trick. His body has this energy explosion, and it rebuilds him, repairs the damage. But it changes him. Face, body... even his personality gets altered. So he can be rather quiet, or grumpy, or mouthy and cheeky, depending on how the change takes him."_

"_I don't understand." she looks to the floor, looking for her dropped Kissie. As she picks it up, she snaps her fingers._

"_I Regenerated!" she exclaims as the doors to the Cathedral swing wide open. She looks at them, startled._

_I stare inside, the dim lights giving me an idea of the size. She's right. It's huge on the inside. The side of her mouth creases into a smile._

"_That's useful," she says. She stands up, and walks in. at the entrance, she turns, and extends a hand to me._

"_Come on, it's perfectly safe," she says with a smile. I take her hand as I enter it. She pockets her Kissie as she snaps her fingers with her now free hand, and I hear the doors slam shut. She starts playing with the controls on a central system, and moves a computer screen, making it in front of her. She's there, looking at everything._

"_Low on fuel... it's the contamination," she says softly. "But, it's localised. The contamination. That's good. Because, I can get it away, and then start a refuelling..." her hands are flying across the controls._

"_Do you know how to operate the Cathedral," I ask. She smiles at me._

"Just about. This get-up is _old._ As in privative. It's going to take me a while to upgrade the systems, and there's no Ballinger Array, which is bizarre, because it's what helps- oh. _That's _what they use? A Rassilon Imprimatur? I'm no expert, but... that's _way_ primitive. Amazing how they managed to get beyond dwelling in caves. And I thought _we_ were privative and behind!" I have no idea what she's talking about. She looks up.

"I'm rubbish at electronics. I can operate tech, but... Don't ask me to solder stuff together. However, the Cathedral is grown, not built. And organic technology is something I _do_ have a chance at understanding. Also, part of my genetic make-up comes from a race of people who are experts in time. Because they live in time itself. And the tech my people took is primitive to them. But..." She glances at the screen. "We're still, what – centuries? - ahead of them."

"You know the energy thing you said I did? Well, what I reckon happened is that my body's new genetic structure thought that my anatomy was in fact chronic damage – one heart. So... it sparked a chain reaction, re-forming me. I regenerated.

"But, it's more than that. I'm a part-breed. I regenerate differently. My body goes back to it's "Default Form," because I can already alter my form. My memory is shot a bit, which I'm sorry for." She walks up to me, and puts her arms around my hips.

"I just hope we get to be as close a couple as we were before, sweet-pea," she says, smiling at me, her eyes drifting to my lips.

"We were not a couple," I tell her, panicking. She smiles at that.

"It's okay. I go for the person, not the gender. I've got to have loved you," she says. Her voice softens. "How else could you know my name?"

"The Blue Green Book. It has a photo in it that has your name on the back." She snorts at this.

"Which one?"

"The one of you in a fast food uniform," I tell her. She looks at me strangely.

"There has never been a picture of me in a fast food uniform. I once worked in a fast food restaurant, but... There's no picture." I frown at that.

"But I saw-"

"Look, I get it. You're freaked out by me regenerating, and not remembering. I'm freaked myself, okay? So it's all right, really." she gives me a small smile.

"Wanna see why I'm willing to fight? Why I'm going to get rid of Skynet? I'll show you." She rushes to the console, and with the pushing of a couple of leavers, and a couple of buttons, the central pillar to the console starts working, and with a groaning and a creaking, the Cathedral starts to operate.

"What are you doing? Where are we going?" she gives me a ghost of a smile.

"I'm taking you to see the start of everything."


	11. The Start Of Everything

**The Start of Everything**

I feel myself grow nervous. I saw it. Judgement Day. I remember being in the Time Tornado, looking up, and there were missiles overhead, flying messages of destruction and death. I don't want to see. I don't want to witness the near destruction of Humanity.

Jane is dancing around the console, hands and feet operating the controls. The way she moves, using a hand to push in and out a handle, a foot to kick a lever to the right place, moving manically to keep the Cathedral in motion.

"Gotta sort these controls out!" she says as she rushes past me. She seems to be having a hard time operating it all. I stare at the console, a circular, organic affair with six sections divided out. Oh. She's having to operate it on her own, and it needs to be six people working it. I wish I knew how to help her.

I look down, at the Sonic Screwdriver in my hand. It is not like Jane's Kissie, but it is still a useful tool. The things that can be done... If Skynet had this, it would be able to add this to every Terminator... I know now that Jane is right to keep it from all sides. I put the Screwdriver into my pocket. It feels right, like it is a part of me.

I feel the Cathedral lurch to a halt. I feel fear. I don't want to be dragged of by many Terminators.

I don't want my existence to end.

I don't want to die.

Jane walks to the doors, a small, warm smile on her face.

"Come on, I need you to see this." She reaches out a hand to me."Trust me," she says softly. I walk up to her, and hold her hand.

"This is how it all starts, the beginning of everything," she says softly, before snapping her fingers. The doors obediently swing wide open.

Oh.

_Oh._

My eyes widen as I take in the scene in front of me.

_We are floating in space. So, so big, and I have no idea where we are._

"Where is Earth?" I ask, suddenly wishing I was back home.

"All around us. We are at the birth of our Solar System. Earth is all around us, waiting to be formed," Jane says quietly, as if in awe of the sight. A large asteroid lumbers past us overhead, close enough to see the surface pockmarked with craters. It spins slowly, and I realise that the Cathedral is not affected by its gravity. It seems so close, I could reach out and touch it. I see smaller rocks hitting it, adding to the mass.

"That's it. Right there. Earth. Given time, other rocks will collide with it, and make it bigger, and bigger, until..."

"The Earth is formed," I finish, realising what is being said.

"Well... There's going to be a collision with another newborn planet, and a bit will come out of that."

"So, that will be the Earth?" She smiles.

"No, that's going to be the Moon." I look at her, wide-eyed. How does she know all of this?

"Thank you for explaining," I say. I realise something.

"How can we be in space, and have the doors open?" She looks at me and smiles.

"The Cathedral is protecting us. If you will, it's the magic of the Cathedral, keeping us safe and alive."

"How can you know all of this?"

"What, about the creation of the Earth? I read about it in an astronomy magazine." She giggles. "Patrick Moore: Source of all astronomy knowledge." She looks outside.

"You know, I could just see this as the perfect background for a Kylie Minogue video, and at the end, she becomes a ball of energy, and travels the cosmos or something." I look at her, completely lost, but then I realise something.

"The Cathedral... it goes anywhere?" I ask. She looks at me, a look of enthusiasm.

"The Cathedral of Time... Next stop? _Everywhere_," she gushes. She stops, and looks at me suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I want to go somewhere. I need something," I tell her. She looks at me, worried.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I need a heart," I tell her. She now looks really worried.

"Why? Is there a system malfunction? Are you broken? I'll fix, I'm sure I can figure-"

"I need a heart."

"What? You've got a power regulator failure something? If I have a schematic, I might be able to come up with some sort of comp-"

"No. My system is fine. I need a heart." She looks completely lost.

"I need you to help me. I need to get to the Yellow Brick Road." She looks even more lost.

"Yellow... But that's in a _book_! It's not _real_!"

"But you have said that Terminators are not real, and that the Cathedral shouldn't exist, and the hand in the jar healed you, and you exploded and grew a second heart. It has to be magic. If there is magic, then there has to be the Yellow Brick Road, and I need to walk along it to get to the Emerald City. Then the Wizard can give me a heart." Jane raises an eyebrow, and and absently brushes her hair from her face with her hand. She has webbed skin between her fingers. How come I didn't see that before? And her ear... it's pointed. And her eyes... they are round, abnormally round. Not human... she said other elements... she notices her hand, and gasps, her mouth full of fangs. Her hand flies to her mouth, and she turns away, running towards the central console. There is a strange bulge to the back of her leather trousers. There's a sniffling. I run to her, and with all my strength, grab her by the shoulder and turn her to make her face me. She's staring at me, scared. And shame. She has shame. She pulls her hair over her face.

"What is happening?"

"Default form," she says softly. "but I didn't show it at first... unless it was a glamour. Reflexive. Instinct." She looks at me through her hair. "You think I'm a freak, don't you? I'm a..."

"Will you take me?"

"Huh?"

"To see the Wizard." I can see that she is bewildered, despite the mask of hair. I give her a smile, and brush the hair from her face.

"I don't care." A thought comes to me. "You are my friend. Friends accept each other for who they are."

"Why a heart? Why do you think you need a heart? I don't get it," she says, sniffling.

"Because my chest is hollow."

"But your chest is full of... I dunno, _parts_. It's full-"

"Because my chest feels hollow." she looks at me, her eyes widening in understanding.

"Oh, Sweetpea..."

"So you'll take me? To see the Yellow Brick Road? To the Emerald City? To see the Wizard?" she looks at me sadly.

"Bit it's not real! It doesn't exist..." a look ripples across her face, as if something has come to her.

"Well... yes, the Yellow Brick Road exists... but the Emeral- well, I guess _that_ could be considered one... but you wouldn't need a Wizard. There isn't one." A thought crosses her. "Except that... well, it'd be a reverse process of sorts. They'd never do it, though." her face is full of thought, as her mind races to find answers.

"Pride. The best Smiths have loads of it. We _could_ trick one into doing it." she looks at me, with a glimmer of determination, which crashes down with a realisation.

"We can't do it."

"But-"

"The time-line. The Patch Openings... I guess you'd call them Nexus Nodes, they're unavailable. And the Cathedral would need them to get to the Yellow Brick Road." her shoulders slump in defeat.

"We can't do it." her eyes look up at me, the brilliant, glowing green ablaze with compassion.

"If I could give you one of mine, I would," she tells me. "I _would._" I feel my body drain of hope and excitement.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining." She suddenly makes a squeal, and starts swivelling the screen around to her, and is hitting the controls hard.

"If we stop Skynet from being created, and we stop the time displacement technology from being created, we'd have no contamination. No contamination, no unavailable Openings. No barrier to us getting you a heart." she turns to look at me.

"You want a heart? Then you have to step up, and fight." she looks again at the screen. "Because it's the only way to do it."

"Then I fight. And win." And I will. Anything to have a heart. She just hugs me, and then snaps her fingers. The doors close, and she's operating the controls again, and after a bumpy ride, she rushes outside, into the garden. I feel myself feel a little... I don't know. Sad, I guess. The wonderful journey is over.

And then she's back, with her leather jacket, backpack and the stuff I bought. And I realise. She's just collecting our stuff. And as she rushes through, she snaps her fingers, and the doors close again, and she drops the stuff to the floor. She starts to operate the controls.

"Sorry it took so long, I had to make sure that the key to the back door was in its place, and the door was locked. So, I had to come out the front way." She looks at me with an impish smile as her face changes back to the human countenance I know so well now. She gets out the computer, and with some cables, attaches it to the console. Next, she gets out a couple more keyboard type pieces of equipment, and then attaches them as well. Then she gets a few clamps out of the backpack, along with some rods of some description.

"Transcendental Physics," she explains. "bag's bigger on the inside." And with that, she carries on, making sure that the computer systems are in front of the seats. The battered yellow leather seats with tape covering holes. She sits down, and positions the consoles closer to her. She pats the seat next to me.

"I guess you think less of me now," she says wistfully. I rub the tip of my thumb along her lip.

"No."

"But I was made into a monster-"

"I don't believe you. You're not a monster. Not here," I tell her, tapping her chest. She smiles as she operates the controls, angling the screen.

"Where are we going?" she glances at me, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Spoilers," she says as she slides a control up.


	12. The Face Of The Enemy

**The Face Of The Enemy**

I feel the Cathedral lurch as Jane feverishly works her improvised controls, working hard to get the set-up to work. I watch in amazement as the consoles hum in a harmonic symphony, music coming from every touch. It's like watching a conductor at an orchestra. I know I saw it on television once.

I don't sleep.

And now, she's there, hands darting about everywhere, ignoring the sparks that spew out from the central console, the transparent pillar showing its contents moving up and down, green tinted tubes that make up... what? The engine? Well, they're moving. Jane points to a strange shaped panel that's lying on the floor next to the main console.

"That panel! Hit it!" She shrieks. I rush to it, able to keep my balance at the Cathedral lurches, and hit it with my fist. It doesn't look like its part of the Cathedral, like it's been added on. There seems to be something like rock or coral at the bottom of it. It seems to be like a strangely shaped surfboard. It has tubes and cables inside it, and a blue glow surrounding the blinking lights and wires showing underneath the clear front. I hit it with my fist, and there seems to be a slight groan from the Cathedral in protest. Jane is staring at her console with utter determination.

"Ancient _junk_!" She screams. The Cathedral continues on, the groaning and grating sound like scratching violin strings, and the central console emits showers of spars and smoke, which makes me reflexively scream. Jane throws her Kissie at a lever, which shifts it, and the sparks stop. She jabs a finger at the central console in fury.

"_Behave_!" she shrieks at it, the look on her face telling me she's now furious with the whole Cathedral itself.

"Bet there wouldn't be the same problems flying the _Millennium Falcon_!" she screams. I don't know if she's talking to me, though. I'm not going to disturb her. She might hit me or something.

With a burst of sparks and a lurch, we stop. Clearly, we've arrived at our destination. Jane is still using the controls, her eyes wide and murderous. The console's colours are growing more calm and soothing. She is clearly back in control of it. She's breathing heavily in anger.

"Have more success using a 386," she mutters darkly, pushing the home-made console to one side, and storming off to the doors. She looks at me, clearly trying to calm down.

"Wanna see?" she says, still trying to lose her anger. I get up from the floor, and walk to the door, uncertain of what's outside. She holds out her hand, and as soon as she's sure I'm ready, she snaps her fingers.

And outside is darkness.

Total darkness.

Except that there is the growing of light.

I don't understand. How can space be so dark? Where are-

Oh.

There's a faint glow outside, and it's getting brighter and brighter...

And suddenly I see a ball of light enflame into life, and I see gas all around us.

"The first star," Jane says. I look at her in awe and shock.

"How?"

"The Cathedral. My people nave never gone back this far in a time-line before. How could they? The Patch Openings would never be usable; they'd open up onto nothing."

"I don't understand-"

She slides her hair behind her ear, showing me that it is still pointed.

"Should give you a clue," she says. She looks at me sadly.

"You wish you had a heart, I wish I was normal."

"Then why not-"

"Because I was never normal to begin with. I didn't know it, but I hadn't been born human. And I hate my father for that. I hate the fact he was using me as breeding stock to produce the ultimate child. I hate him for messing his experiment up, and the genetic structure failing. I hate him for destroying my life in his botched attempt to save my life. I hate his kind for what they are. I hate the other race I come from, because of their attitudes and behaviour towards humans." She looks to the floor. "I am on a genetic level a Frankenstein's monster. Because I come from monsters." I hug her. She's not a monster. She could never be a monster.

"It's not what are that's important, it's who you are," I tell her. "You said that to me," I remind her. She looks away.

"You don't know me. What I've done."

"I was once a Terminator. What did I do? It worries me."

"But you were _programmed_. You had no _choice_. Now you do, and look at what you've done with that choice."

"You have said that you are programmed to some degree by your genetics. Although I don't understand what part of you is a rabbit."

"Huh? I don't... oh... _oh_... you're talking about me being a lust bunny..." She looks at me, her face reddening from embarrassment.

"Well, I..." she walks to the console. "We'll need to refuel... there's a temporal rift close by, and that can be used..."

"Why won't you answer me?"

"Because I hate myself."

"What do you mean?"

"My whole life has been a lie." She looks at me, tears clouding her eyes.

"The friends I held dear turned out to be my sisters. Our whole lives had been manipulated by my father. You was made. We were _bred_. We were made to be like _you_. To cause genocide." She sink down to the floor.

"The evidence I've been collecting points to us having been bred to help wipe out entire supernatural races. Because our father believes that the world – _my _world – would be better off without them. But I can't. Even though they are complete monsters."

"Why not?" She looks at me, tears pouring down her face, her eyes full of strength. I've seen that before. Wet hair. Someone with wet hair...

"Because it's _wrong_."

"But if they are monsters-"

"If I kill them all, then I'm _worse _than them. They behave to their nature. They feed off blood. They're predators. And a number of them are complete monsters. But how can I judge? How can I sit and decide that they should all be destroyed? How? _How?_"

"I don't understand."

"Good."

"But-"

"I don't want to talk about it any more."

"Why not?"

"Because it _hurts_."

"Oh."

I just stand there, wondering what to do. She's crying. I don't know what to do. Her body readings are erratic. I don't know if it is because she's not human. I frown. I can't help. I don't understand the sensations that are inside me. I need to walk. I look off to one side. There is are several corridors. I choose one. I internalise, using as much of my core memory to understand everything that's happened to me. Ever since I walked out. My memory is impaired. I'm not remembering everything.

Oh. My file memory format isn't correct. But if I reset, I'll lose all the memory files that I've built up. I'd forget.

I don't want to forget.

I'll work around the recollection problem.

I continue walking. This is illogical. We are inside a tiny space. However, the sizing would suggest that I am inside a large, complex structure. And I don't understand what is happening.

Fear. I feel fear. Because I don't know what's happening. Who is manipulating us? And why? I open a door, and jut go inside. Oh. It's a bedroom. I take off my boots. And my clothes. I slide under the sheets, and curl up into a ball. I start to cry. My world was simple. I can remember a fragment, of coming out of the factory. I know I was special. I'm not a standard design. My skin came from someone, and I was the only one to have it. Why? It was so much simpler when I had a simple program to obey, but now I'm in this world, and it doesn't make sense. I don't make sense.

I want things to make sense again.

I don't want to fight.

I don't want to die.

Did the girl whose face I now have die? If so, how?

Did I do it?

How many people have I killed?

The weight of the question comes crashing down on me, with more power than the trucks John and Sarah used to pin me, more crushing.

Out, out damned spot.

Where did that come from? Oh. Shakespeare. Macbeth. I need to shut down, run diagnostics.

I hear a noise. I get up. Oh. I am fully clothed. But I went into the bed naked. The noise. It's there again. A metallic noise. I open the door, and walk into the corridor. I look right, noticing that it is much darker. I turn around, and I see a T- Triple Eight there, staring down on me, red glowing eyes mercilessly and coldly locking on to me. I scream, and run down the corridor, as fast as I can run. Something is wrong. I'm going slow. Time is slow. The Triple Eight is catching up, and I try to evade the cold metal hand now gripping my shoulder, the fingers vice-like in their squeezing. I feel it buckle from the strain, and I cry out, the pain making my legs give out. I'm dragged to a mirror, kicking and screaming. My body is lifted up by the hair, and it feels as if my scalp will tear away. It has a scalpel in the other hand, and it slices away at the skin, until all that's left is the chrome-shining metal underneath, my eye gouged out and revealing gleaming blue optics, my right eye streaming out tears.

"What you are," it says in a deep electronic voice before smashing my head in the mirror-

And my eyes open, my ears ringing to my own screaming.


	13. Fixing

**Fixing**

I wake up to the sound of my own screaming, the sound ringing in the chamber, the terror piercing my ears. My skin is slick with sweat, my body shaking.

I need to find Jane. I need to know what's going on. What's happening to me.

I just put the dress on, to make sure that I get to her a quickly as possible. It wasn't a memory. It was something new, generated... but why? What does it mean?

I race down the corridors, quickly getting back to the entrance chamber. I see banners draped on the curved columns, carefully attached so they drape and curl, the bright colours and patterns a background for symbols I have never seen before. Jane, where is she? Oh. She's sitting at the modified console, though it looks more developed now. She's got on a long flowing, deep red dress. She's breathing heavily, and is sweating a lot. I think she's also crying. I sit down next to her, and I can now see she's shaking. But it's not cold. I stroke her hair, hoping that this will make her feel better. She moves her head away from me sharply.

"Don't. Leave me alone. Get away from me."

"What's wrong?"

"You're in danger."

"But we are alone."

"Yeah... that's why you're in danger." I touch her shoulder. She growls. But... that sounded so much like an animal growling. Primal. Hungry. Cornered. I don't know what is happening.

I don't think it's good. I don't like it.

I start to back away.

"Good. I need to be isolated. Go find somewhere, and lock yourself in. Because I don't know if I can control it."

"Control what?" She looks at me, her face struggling, her eyes silver-blue. They stare at me like I am meat.

"The Hunger." She looks away.

"You just put my hand in the jar, and hoped for the best... when I was altered, it was controlled. The changes were made over a _week_... I was hovering between life and death. I fought my way back." A shockwave of a shiver tremors her. "It's out of control. All my DNA is fighting for dominance. I'm out of control. And that Regeneration burnt up a lot of energy. I've consumed everything you got, everything I had with me, in case the journey went wrong, and I needed to hide. And I'm still damned _hungry_." She looks at me, her eyes normal. Her eyes dart to my neck. She licks her lips, mesmerised by my neck. A look of shock ripples across her face, and she looks away.

"You need to go. If I lose control, I'd be too powerful for you."

"But I've got strength that exceeds-"

"Not mine. Not if I'm out of control. Not if I'm in a Primal Frenzy." I feel anger at that. How _dare_ she think that!

I storm up to her, and grabbing her shoulder, I forcefully spin her around to face me. With my free hand, I create a ball of energy, the silver light reflecting off her face. She looks at me, stunned.

"How... That's not _possible_," she exclaims. She looks at me carefully. With her right hand, she creates a small, fast spinning glowing red ball of red light. It, however, looks solid. But... it's similar.

Jane grabs my face, and pulls her close to mine. We are close, so close... as if we are about to kiss. My eyes dart down, looking at her lips. I kissed them, but that was being random.

"_I love you! I love you! Please!" I scream. I know it wasn't true, but... it was true. _

_I had to love him. I had to love him, so I could kill him._

I look at Jane, and realise that if it meant I could succeed at getting a heart, I could make myself love her. Simulate it. It's what I was originally made to do.

But I'm a Tin Miss.

It wouldn't be right.

But Jane is unhappy. If I can make her happy, then it would be all right. Because I'd have given her something she needs. It's clear she loves me. Her behaviour is similar to Morris. But different. If she is happy, then maybe she'd be okay again, and-

"I can't..." She pulls away, her eyes wide, her head shaking slightly. I don't know what's going on. Making her love me wouldn't be fair or right. But I was willing to think about doing it.

It wasn't right.

_I_ wasn't right.

"Unbelieveable... You..." she looks me up and down, as if she's seen something she's not happy with. She knows. She must know what I was about to do. I feel a sensation, a tingling that is growing heavier with each second. Guilt. It must be guilt. I swallow hard. I need to find the right words. Pacify her. Her body trembles again, as if she's not well. She clutches herself swallowing hard.

"I look at you, and I see me. How? _How_?" she exclaims, as if trying to understand something impossible.

"Wait... that's something I've never seen before... When I was gaining the new DNA, did something – _any_thing – strange happen to you?" She looks weird. I remember once, on television, there was this documentary about drug addicts, and they looked like Jane. Hungry for something.

"I tried to scan you, to see what was wrong, and I ended up overloaded with a power surge."

"Weird colours? Strange sensations in your body?"

"Yes."

"Side effect."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I." She takes my arm with sweaty, shaking hands. "I have to see what's going on. Which means a blood test. And that I'm sorry."

Before I can say anything, she has lowered her head to my wrist, and I cry out in pain as my skin is broken, and a pair of fangs sink down, finding a vein and start to drain my blood out of it. I try to struggle, but it is impossible – for now I feel the most intense pleasure. I feel great. Alive. And I know that Jane is siphoning off my blood, drinking it.

And as quickly as she started, she stops, licking the wound before letting go of my wrist. I look at her, uncertain as to what to do, whether to trust her or not. I don't want to lose all of my blood. That thought fills me with fear sensations that are not logical.

"I should be puking up right now. Your blood is synthetic. But... it's somehow picked up Kindred properties. And Gentry too..." She frowns.

"I think you've absorbed some original DNA, too. From him. The Lord of Time."

"Oh." I feel confused. "How did this happen?"

"Well, I'm a hybrid species to begin with. Which gives me a number of abilities. One of which is to alter flesh. To see how a person works, down to a cellular level, and to alter them. I've studied heaps of books and stuff on anatomy, medicine... so I can perform surgery better. Because I can go in, and fix things."

"So you can give me a heart?"

"No. You're part mechanical, and it's beyond that power's limits. I can mould a heart from your genetic structure, but I'd have nowhere to put it. But the energy hit you. It's altered you. Your endoskeleton... The structure is different. So, I guess it's tapping into a transformative power I didn't know exist. Maybe it was simply a self-defence mechanism – to stop you from hurting me. In any case, that energy re-built you. I think it's integrated your organics and mechanics more closely."

"What does it mean?" She looks away, a shiver hitting her. Her face screws up in pain.

"I don't know. But I _do_ know that you're more able to be fitted with a heart. A human heart. Because you're like a Changeling, in a way. Fae touched. Fae altered." She winces in pain,and I hold her. The crystal like side panels Jane has added on have gone from red in colour to green.

"We're fully refuelled. I'm not up to getting us back, though. Not yet." I stroke her hair. She leans her head on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. I tilt my head and frown slightly at this.

"Why?"

"For not being able to get us home just yet."

"You are still recovering. I don't know how you're coping. I think I'd have malfunctioned," I say. "I'm not sure how I am coping with all of this," I tell her. She seems amused by this.

"I'm not sure, either. But having amnesia helps. Because I can't remember everything, it gives me more distance. More time to heal." A silence grows between us.

"I've got something for you," she says quietly. She moves, and puts around my neck a pendant. It has wings, and a couple of jewels in the middle. Oh. It feels very warm to the touch.

"It's called the Evenstar. I managed to get an image from the console, and the Cathedral fashioned it for me. I then imbued it with energy and magic. It's to help guide you. So you never lose your way," she explains. Oh. It's beautiful, the way the silver shines with the glistening of the jewels. I kiss her on the cheek, a quick, simple affair. She winces at this.

"Thank you for the present." And I mean it.


	14. A Sad Message To The Readers

Dear readers…

Dear readers…

If you're reading this, then it means you're one of the serious ones. And that's important.

The numbers of people reading has gone down, but it's the people who've kept on, and those who've left reviews that have kept this going.

Thank you. Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to keep on reading it.

Sadly, the next part is the last part I'm uploading.

Yep, the story's at an end.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed it, and enough so to want to read the next story, the continuation to all of this…

Catherine Weaver has possession of the Turk.

Automite Systems has a network that controls Serrano Point.

Skynet is winning the battle.

Will heroes rise up to stop the threat?

Find out in the next chapter: **Balance of Power**

PS: If people have thoughts, ideas, mad wishes about the next story, let me know. I'm doing this for you folks as much as myself…


	15. Full Circle

**Full Circle**

I stroke her hair.

She's still not recovered, but at least she's asleep. I want to watch over her, make sure she's safe. I'm processing everything that's happened to me. I don't understand it all. But I understand that I'm not a Terminator. Not any more.

That makes me glad.

I think of the future, the ruined planet, and I then think of it being made. I can't do it. I can't allow the world to be destroyed like that. I just can't.

I _won't_.

I go into my pocket, and pull out the Lord of Time's scanner. Jane called it a Sonic Screwdriver. Makes sense – it uses sonic waveforms to modulate and iterate the surrounding environment.

And I don't know how I know this, either.

But then Jane told me that inside me is a piece of the Lord of Time. More than that, it is a different piece, a unique piece. It must be how I know about the Sonic, and how I can _feel _ the Cathedral all around me, a peaceful, welcoming presence inside my mind. It is so strange. I feel _connected_ to time itself. Oh. The Sonic could do with charging. It has plenty of energy, but I don't want to run out.

I carefully position Jane's head onto the seat, disentangle myself from the seat, and walk to the central console. Where? Oh. There. I see the port I can use to charge it. I pull the black tip off the bottom, sliding my thumb over it, feeling the surface. It's like the keys of a piano. It has the same colour, too. Cracked ivory. It feels natural, as if in part _grown_. Like my organics. And as I slot it into the port, the end of the silver bulb section flashes blue for a second, a buzzing noise sounding. It's charging now. It's going to take a while, but not that long. It's almost fully charged, anyway.

I put the tip inside my pocket, and walk back to the battered old seat, wanting to rest next to Jane again. Jane Smith. Such a dull, ordinary lane for such an extra ordinary person. I don't know if she's an adult woman, or a teenager... but she's still amazing. I just wish she'd get better. I want to go home, and fight Skynet, so I can have a heart. I put her head on my lap, and start stroking her hair again. She's still shaking from the DNA sorting itself out. I feel a tear trickle down my cheek.

I feel lonely. I need to talk to someone, and there's no-one to talk to. I decide to go to stand-by mode, and run diagnostics again.

There's a noise and I look up. Something is wrong. There. Again. The noise is coming from outside. I get up, moving the still unconscious Jane, and walk to the door. There should be nothing – we are at the start of everything, circling around the first star. I'm still nervous opening the doors, though.

Oh. It's a rabbit. It's been kicking on the door. And we are firmly landed on ground. In a field. With green, green grass. I start to skip barefoot down the gentle slope, the wet grass making it slippery. I don't care. I'm happy. I get to the bottom, and I see a silver bicycle, a little way away, in the next field. I climb over the wooden fence, and as my feet touch the ground, and I turn to get to it, I see a T-888 there next to it, gleaming in the sun, glowing red eyes of death, and a grin of killing.

I scream in horror as it smashes the bicycle into pieces, and I see others all around me, gleaming metal and fatal smiles, guns pointing at me. They move to one side, and someone walks forward, as it gets darker and darker, clouds rolling over, and lightning blinds the sky. A second later, my ears are ringing with thunder so loud that the noise is still pounding in my ears, and I can't hear anything other than the thunder crashing in my ears. The lightning has blinded me, making me see nothing but the glowing red eyes of the Terminators. The person slaps me hard in the face. It's like being hit with a shovel. I feel my cheek crumple with the force, blood rupturing into my flesh... my cheek... it's _bone_. I feel it. I'm _human_. I pant in fear, desperate to get back to the Cathedral, but it's gone. Or I can't see it. My eyes aren't too good. A net drops down on me, and I'm trapped. The person grabs my jaw, and sharply twists my head to look at them. The power in that hand... it must be what mine is like. Was like. I'm just a regular girl now, and it scares me. Before, I'd have had a slim chance of fighting and getting away, but I know... I _know_ that I'll never get away.

They never let you get away.

This is what it's like... to be surrounded, to be hunted. To never be able to stop, because _they _don't. No pity... no remorse... I'm starting to remember all of it now. I... I was a _monster. _I don't like that. At _all_. And now, I'm going to die. I'm going to die resisting. I'll never let Skynet -

_I'm staring at myself._

The face... it's mine, but the hair is messy, and wet... the clothes too. There's a tired look to me – her – dark rings under her eyes, and nasty gashes above her left eye and cheek. Her eyes, though... they're full of hate. She's gripping my throat, a vice grip. I stare at her defiantly.

"I'll never betray John Connor," I spit out at her. She smiles at me, a cruel sadistic smile, her eyes suddenly glowing electric blue. She puts a bracelet in front of my face.

"You already have. I passed."

I feel an increase in pressure, and a loud snap-

I open my eyes, my body jerking, a scream piercing the air. My scream. I'm panting. And sweating. It's cold. The sweat is cold. I'm shaking. I'm not cold. I'm scared. I run a hand through my hair. I start to cry.

I curl up on the seats, trying to get over what just happened. I swallow hard. I feel myself frown, my face crumpling.

"So... must have been someone important."

I look up, startled. Jane is there, crouched, perfectly balanced on the edge of the main console. She still looks like she's recovering, hair damp and messy, eyes hollow and black rimmed. Her eyes, though... kind, sympathetic.

"That's the problem with having a conscience... the dead come back to haunt you," she says softly. She gives me a small, sad smile.

"When I Awakened, it was chaos... before I had a chance to get over the shock, we were staked and dragged off and tried. my Sire was executed for illegally creating me. And then I was dumped. A long standing friend of my Sire's was there, ready to help me. My Sire had done that for him, and was returning the favour. And we were then assaulted by rival factions.

"I'd never killed anything except mosquitoes until that night. And there I was, having to kill to survive. Killing is brutal. It's messy and obscene. Because you have watch them die. See the look in their eyes as they reflect the horror of the realisation that they are dying. And then the light goes out." She brushes away a tear.

"Nightmares are good. Because it means the dead haunt you. It means that you've yet to atone your actions. Make peace with the dead."

"How do you know-"

"Because I'm still making peace." She sighs. "I guess you're starting to remember things. Must be quite something, because you shifted about a lot. Woke me up." She hops down, practised, effortless. She studies my face.

"Well, despite my feeling like steaming manure, we've got to get you home. That face is healing up too much." I touch my face. She's right. Too much time has past.

"Jane... what are they? The false footage?"

"Huh?"

"I keep remembering things that never happened."

"You're having nightmares. Judging by your moving, and screaming."

"What do they mean?"

"You've gotta work something out. And dream architecture differs between people. Some of it is general, and books will help you, and some stuff... well, that's what you've made up. The meaning you'll have to work out."

"Oh. Thank you for explaining." She throws something at me, and I catch it without my eyes leaving her.

"Your Sonic's fully charged," she says softly. I look at it, and fumble around for the missing cap. There... it slides on without a problem.

"Don't let John or anyone know about it. And keep it with you... should prove very useful. I don't know what it can exactly do, but one thing you should know is that it's very good at opening doors. As in it's a very good lockpick. It won't work against... oh, what was it? Yeah... Deadlock Seals. But the good news is that it's a technology I can't imagine you coming across. My sister ranted it had thousands of setting. oh. And I remember once seeing it used to cut barbed wire." I just nod my head. I gaze at the Sonic. Such an amazing piece of technology...l don't believe it... I look at her, completely confused.

"I know... it's hard to believe. But _look_ at where we _are_... this is a time and space machine. We call it the Cathedral of Time, because it's as big as one. It's a Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Shortened... TARDIS. But I prefer calling the Cathedral of Time. It just feels right. Like me putting up the banners. They're the great families of Arcadia.

She points to two of them.

And these I'm related to. Part of the breeding program. My family was one of many... for _centuries_. My father... he's as you've probably guessed Kindred. He got my mum pregnant, just to strengthen the line. He somehow got my mum loaded up with Fae genetics. But it was Seelie. It didn't work, though it wasn't compatible because of the Kindred blood in me. So I was taken. He gave me this liquid, which I thought was Absinthe. I was already drunk off my face, trying to get to grips with my life going to pieces... And he seduced me. Got close to me." I see tears streaming down her face, Jane sniffling as she wipes them away. "I had no guard at all. He stabbed me in the gut. I was there, bleeding out, struggling for my life, and all the while I was... I was-" She collapses into a ball on the floor, crying loudly. I go to her, and start to comfort her. I move her to my lap and rock her gently, processing what she's just said... I don't understand all of it. But I understand that vampires have to drain the blood of their victim, then give them some of their own to change them. I read information about vampires from on-line sites. I'd seen a film about vampires, and I wanted to know what I was watching.

Vampires don't exist.

But the Cathedral shouldn't exist either. Jane said so.

Fiction. She said it was all fiction.

Oh. My fiction is someone else's reality. And Jane came from another time-line. Another universe.

Another reality.

I feel myself start to cry. So much... so much to try and understand...

Jane is up, and still crying is getting to the Modified console.

"Best get you back... you'll need to change back, of course..." I just nod. I go to the bags that were discarded, and find the clothes I was wearing. I hear what sounds like... I guess crystals singing. Oh. It's the console. Operating it is like crystals singing. I take off the dress.

"Er... that's distracting..." I look up, seeing Jane looking at me, her eyes going up and down. I see her gazing at my chest.

"Hmm... yeah... that's doable," I hear her murmur. I look down, trying to work out what she is talking about. What is there to do?

"I do not understand," I tell her, my forehead leaning forward as I speak. She looks at me, startled.

"Huh? Oh... just thinking about ink-work. You know, a heart design. It'll tide you over until we can get you a real heart."

"Ink-work?"

"Yeah... Ah, you don't... I'm talking about a tattoo. On your chest. A heart." She looks suddenly away, staring at her console.

"We should go," she says. Wait... I can perform scans by looking at her... she's stressed. Her heart rate is normal. But she isn't human, and she has two hearts. Her pupil dilation is wide, though. Amphetamines produce a similar effect. But she's not taken such substances. I don't understand why her breathing is quick and shallow. She's swallowing a lot, too. I look away slightly, to see if it produces differing behaviour in her. She's looking at me – no, she's looking slightly in my direction. She keeps glancing at whatever it is that has her interest. Why is she shaking her head? And why are her lips turning down? Her head is jerking upwards. She's staring at me, her head tilted, eyes narrowing. It's like she's analysing me. Oh. I'm analysing her, and it's because of an enhancement of my abilities. It's enhanced because of her. Her energies. Whatever happened to me, whatever changed me, came from her. I must have inherited something from her cellular repairing.

She knows I'm studying her.

_How_?

It makes wonder what my limitations are. I know what my limitations _were_, when I was simply a Terminator. What are they now? What am I now?

I need to process this. Work out and understand who I am.

"What school do you go to?" I look at her properly, not understanding the question.

"John is what? A teenager? University? You'd be protecting him, so..."

"Oh. Compo de Cohuenga high school. The registered date for myself is August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety one. John is July twenty second nineteen ninety two."

"Thanks. It'll make it easy to hook up with you. Shouldn't be to hard to get ID... should be able to be seeing you at school in the next day or two." I look at her, confused.

"You'll need money to acquire counterfeit ID. You'll need a counterfeiter, and the ID would need to be fully use-" She snorts, still looking at her console.

"And I have something that can go backwards and forwards in time. And anywhere. Not to mention I've had to go and do all of this before... create a new life, one that is fully serviceable. There's a lot to this... it's more than just paperwork, it's little details, random memories... I had to build a whole life. So, I have a few ideas on how to get this done and dusted. What I needed was a date of birth to start the whole process. And you need to find your boots." Oh. She's right. I rush off, getting to the bedroom. I quickly put them on, and start to rush back. I feel the cathedral lurch, and I stumble slightly. Jane's getting us back. I get to the entrance chamber, and I get the rest of my clothes onto me. I don't know how she'll get back to the right time...

"And... there." I look up. Jane is pointing to my stuff. "You'll have to leave that here. I'll get it to you." I look at it. She's right. Sarah, Derek and John would ask questions. She nods to the door.

"I extrapolated the church you must have come from. It's a bit early, so we can insert you back without anyone noticing you missing." I just nod and walk out the door.

"I'll be back," Jane says. I tilt my head a little towards her, and leave. And she's right. It's the church. The same church. I turn around in time to see the Cathedral make it's grating, groaning noise, and it fades away. I turn back to the church, and wait, just staring at it, and after some waiting, I see myself rushing out of the church, walking away. I frown as I stare at her. She's me, but totally different. A machine. Lost, confused... as soon as it's safe to, I rush back into the church, silently sitting back at the front. I've sat here before. I stared up at the statue in front of me. I sigh, which seems to stop the argument for a moment. I can sense the two look at me.

Nothing has changed... except everything has changed. A tear rolls down my cheek.

JC. JC. I needed to be saved. I've managed to be saved, for now. I can't help but smile, a small ghost that I know most people wouldn't spot.

I think of Jane's willingness to give up her life, and she didn't know me. Know I've killed people. And is she knew what I was then, she did it. Why? Oh. Faith. She had faith I would find herself.

Faith is in her programming. I think it might be in mine now.

As I stare back at the statue, it hits me. A thought just hits me, and warms my chest.

If we were all a little kinder, a little more thoughtful, then we wouldn't need the weapons Skynet uses against us.

Perhaps winning this war is as easy as being better people. To be everyone's saviour.

And the best thing is, I know who I am now.

I'm Cameron Phillips.

I'm a Tin Miss.

Rainbows are wonderful.

The World is full of magic.

I don't want the world to end.

And no-one can know any of this.


	16. Afterword

**Afterword**

You know, it's amazing I'm writing this.

Mostly because I had fully expected this to peter out and die by now.

There are people to blame for this.

The first happens to be a gentleman called Alistair, who helped to put the idea in my head in the first place. His was one of two posters on the official Terminator site that were intelligent and coherent enough to really give me food for thought. Another driving element is my undying hatred for the writers, because the have no flaming clue as to what to do with Cameron. In my eyes, she's not simply my favourite character, but a brilliant character, and also the heart of the whole gig. At the end of Samson and Delilah, she's on John's side when he thermites the car, not the others. To me that's important.

If John were to be killed, would Cameron step in? Maybe it's her that will stop Skynet from coming about. Because she's clearly gaining humanity and growing. But I digress.

I'd started this story, not fully sure where it would end up. I'd emailed Alistair a thanks for his comment, and that it had been useful in something I'd started. He's offered to read, and it was his encouragement and positive and constructive feedback that had not just driven the story forward, but gave me the strength to start posting it on . This is my first fanfic, and the first thing I've written in at least a year.

Can I thank you all for reading this. I know, sounds stupid, but it's important. The comments and reviews fuelled the direction of the story. I think, though, that the one comment that should be the mission statement for the whole story arc should be: I hope she gets a heart. That one comment sums it all up; in the hero's story, you have a reward, something that you gain after the quest. I know people probably left because it wasn't happening, but... this is something that Cameron has to gain after the quest of slaying the monster that is Skynet. Without Skynet, she could not exist. And yet, to become the person who can get a heart, she needs to forsake that inheritance, betray everything she is, and destroy Skynet, her mother and father. Because, until that moment, she can never truly be herself.

I created rules for this story. Each "episode" had to be between 1,500 and 2,000 words. I've not had such limits since my A-Levels. Then again the last time I was doing short stories was in my A-Levels... Anyway, the second rule was: No swearing. If swearing is used, it has to have proper weight. This was partly because I was posting on , but also to stretch me. I wanted to use words fully and properly. As a result, the one time there is swearing, it's powerful. The moment smacks you in the face; the emotion gains power, because the word is so out of place. At least, it was for me ;)

Another rule was that there should be some twist at the end, something unexpected, a revelation/realisation. This was a result of posting this up; I wanted to keep readers, well reading. Hopefully, that's happened. ;)

Something that appeared, right from the second "episode," was "Er, is that the Doctor's Hand?" and "Is this a Doctor Who crossover?" Well, the answer is simple: Yes and No. But I'm going to step back here, and explain things to people who probably are going "huh?" right now.

Doctor Who is a long running science fiction series in Britain. The main character is called The Doctor; his name has never been revealed. Why he has no name is one of the big mysteries around him. But, this chap is an alien, from the planet Gallifrey. A Time Lord, to be precise. So, yes, the Lord of Time, _is_ the Doctor. But it's not as simple as that... the reader, geega-pax, had it so nearly right... but it's more complex than you might think.

The Doctor every now and then goes through a process called a Regeneration. This was originally created, because the original actor was suffering from increasing ill health. They needed to replace him somehow. One executive turned around, and said "Well, he's an alien, right? Well, he changes face and body from time to time." And so they put it in, and made sure that it could be done several times. The Ninth Doctor had saved his companion (He travels with suspiciously cute, young ladies... hmm...) by taking the Time Vortex into him, and putting it back into the Heart of the TARDIS. She'd taken it into her, to destroy the Dalek Emperor and his troops. (The Daleks are possibly the Doctor's greatest foes; they were about the very first enemies he gained, way back in 1963.) She was protecting The Doctor from "the false god."

This is important, because if you look at the "Hand vision" sequence, you'll see it's there. Rose is a blonde. Also, the whole absorbing the Vortex that Jane did was inspired by the Ninth Doctor. Anyway, the Ninth Doctor took fatal damage, and that triggered a Regeneraton. Regenerations are tricky processes, and the Tenth Doctor was suffering badly because he had been awoken too soon to save Rose (again...) Anyway, he recovered, and had to fight to for Earth's freedom in a sword-fight with the leader of the invaders, a race called the Sycorax. He lost his hand, falling down over London. But he was still within the first fifteen hours of his Regeneration, so he was able to shift the excess energy to the stump, and grow a new hand.

The lost hand was recovered by a chap called Jack Harkness, so he could use it as a detector, to give him an advanced warning The Doctor was appearing, so he could meet him. This happened, and the Lord of Time got his hand back as a really weird talking piece at parties... Anyway, the hand ended up with a load of Regeneration energy, because those pesky Daleks came back to terrorise Earth again, to prove they had sufficient hatred of mankind to become Traffic Wardens. The Doctor used the process to heal his dying body, and tricked the energy into his nearby hand. This eventually got touched in a crisis by a companion of his, which triggered the growth of a second Doctor.

So... if the hand grew into a second Doctor, where did _my_ hand come from?

Well, the answer is simple: we Turn Left.

One episode had a companion at a dodgy fortune teller's, where she ended up with this really large beetle on her back. Seriously. It must have been on steroids to get ready for the next Starship Troopers film... this bug, though, altered time. It ended up rigging it so she had never taken the temp job that had led to her meeting the Doctor. This was a catastrophe, because she was essential. He ended up fighting the Red spider demon- yes, the Empress of the Racnoss, but Donna, the woman who should have been there, wasn't. So, he stayed too long, because there wasn't anyone to bring him back from the brink. So he drowned.

In my interpretation of events, Jack put the Sonic Screwdriver and the hand into the TARDIS, the Doctor's time/space ship, as a sort of memorial. The TARDIS became the engine to an improvised time machine to correct things, and restore the damage done. When they used this time machine, it was deliberately sucked out of that alternate time-line (which was about to collapse because of the corrections,) and into my story's time-line. The doors were open, though, and the hand fell out and hit Jane on the head.

How did it get sucked out? Well, Cameron is right; there IS someone manipulating events. (other than me...) Some powerful force has seen the damaging effects the Time Displacement technology is, and wants to break the stale-mate. Jane had been en route to handing to a Doctor Sandeman the working model of the hand-held Kissie, along with various equipment to some of her people. She was ambushed, and fought the Elder, desperate to stop her from being the destroyer prophesies had been talking about. And ended up in this story.

As soon as people started to wonder if this was a Doctor Who crossover, I decided tom play on that. I wanted people to think that Jane was either a Time Lord, or somehow the daughter of the Doctor... And the Kissie could easily be mistaken for a Sonic Screwdriver. (Ironically, in my chronology, the original prototype for the hand-held Kissie was built around a toy Sonic Screwdriver, because they'd liked the shape, and they wanted the UV light.)

She needed Time Lord DNA to survive the contamination. If she was fully Fae, she'd have been killed very quickly. Being a hybrid massively delayed that. She has the ability to alter and change flesh, and it was instinctively used to take the needed genetics to sort her out. It's not a regeneration. It's different. And when Cameron got hit by it, that energy altered her as well, altering her endoskeleton and organics. She's got hints of Fae and Kindred in her now, as well as Time Lord DNA. I decided to do that, so she could gain the Sonic Screwdriver. (How awesome is _that_ idea? It has so many story potentials...)

One reason why the TARDIS has been renamed is to make it a separate entity. Should I have the Doctor appearing, I need to show the difference quickly and easily. Also, I can make it have it's own personality better that way, too. This is a refuge, a base of operations. I wanted the TARDIS, because it's the ultimate headquarters for a Time War. Also, it allows me to get Cameron to see wonders ad beauty she could never have had before. Also, it continues the notion of fairy-tale, of magic.

So... what's next? Well, you'll have to wait. I need to figure that one out fully myself. ;) I'll certainly be looking onto Automatic For The People, and seeing how things were from Cameron's point of view. I'm hoping to resolve one of the plot points the writers abandoned, as well as introducing new people...

What I can guarantee is that the next one should be a it less confusing ;)


End file.
